The yen jumped against higher-yielding currencies on Tuesday as investors sold riskier assets on fears of slowing Asian economic growth in the wake of the Japanese earthquake, tsunami and nuclear crisis. The higher-yielding Australian dollar fell more than 2.0 percent against the US dollar, while the New Zealand and Canadian dollars also tumbled.
The US dollar was down 0.9 percent at 80.91 yen on electronic trading platform EBS, not far from its record low of 79.75 struck in 1995. The dollar also fell to a record low against the Swiss franc of 0.9164 francs on EBS. Also tempered by risk aversion, the euro was down 0.2 percent at $1.3963 on EBS and 0.9 percent against the yen. The Australian dollar slid to a nine-week low of $0.9815 against the US dollar and a four-and-a-half-month low of 79.23 yen, according to Reuters data.