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Investors scoop up the yen and Swiss franc

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Aussie steadies after hitting five-year low

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Markets leaning toward Fed cut in May

(Updates prices, adds new comment, changes dateline, byline)

By Chibuike Oguh and Yadarisa Shabong

NEW YORK, April 7 (Reuters) - Investors bought into safe

havens such as the dollar, yen and Swiss franc on Monday as

concerns about a global recession heightened following U.S.

President Donald Trump's sweeping tariffs on trading partners.

Global markets plunged on Monday, with Wall Street stocks

trading lower after Asian shares sank, as investors wagered the

mounting risk of a deep economic downturn could lead to a cut in

U.S. interest rates as early as May.

The risk-sensitive Australian and New Zealand dollars, as

well as the Swedish and Norwegian crowns, all dropped against

the dollar.

The dollar cut its losses against other safe-haven

currencies. It was up 0.50% against the yen to

147.605, after tumbling more than 1.4% earlier in the session.

The dollar also hit its lowest in six months against the

Swiss franc and was last down 0.06% at 0.8605 franc in choppy

trading..

"The only thing we know for sure is that it's volatile ...

But I think broadly, leaving aside nuances, because tariffs are

thought to be hurting world growth, those currencies that seem

to be more like risk-on currencies - the dollar bloc and the

Scandies - they are underperforming," said Marc Chandler, chief

market strategist at Bannockburn Global Forex in New York.

"On the other hand, the currencies that are typically

safe-haven currencies - like the Swiss franc and yen - are

performing better."

The euro, which gained as much as 0.7% to $1.1050

earlier in the session, was down 0.39% at $1.091775.

"The euro has certainly performed really quite well over the

last couple of days since we've heard about the tariffs," said

Jane Foley, head of FX strategy at Rabobank.

"Maybe that's related to the euro zone current account

position, or maybe it's just related to investors still moving

out of U.S. assets and still not quite sure where they should be

moving their money to."

While the dollar is typically known as a safe-haven asset,

that status seems to be eroding as uncertainty over tariffs and

concern over their impact on U.S. growth intensify.

European Union countries will seek to present a united front

in the coming days against Trump's tariffs, likely approving a

first set of targeted countermeasures on up to $28 billion of

U.S. imports ranging from dental floss to diamonds.

Sterling hit a one-month low at $1.27465 and was

last down 1.05% against the greenback.

The Aussie, often used as a proxy for risk

appetite, tumbled to a five-year low earlier in the session, but

was last down 0.51% to $0.601.

The New Zealand dollar eased 0.86% to $0.5547,

having slid more than 1% earlier in the session.

Trump's tariff announcements wiped out nearly $6 trillion in

value from U.S. stocks last week. When asked about the impact,

Trump said on Sunday that sometimes "medicine" was needed to fix

things, adding he was not intentionally engineering a market

selloff.

TRADERS HOPE FOR RAPID U.S. RATE CUTS

More than 50 nations have approached the White House to

begin trade talks. China, which has struck back with

countermeasures including extra levies of 34% on all U.S. goods,

said on Saturday "the market has spoken."

Traders have ramped up bets of more Federal Reserve rate

cuts this year on the view policymakers would have to ease more

aggressively to shore up growth in the world's largest economy.

Markets swung to imply an approximately 55% chance of a Fed

cut in May, and futures now point to more than 100 basis points

worth of rate cuts by December this year. Investors

were previously expecting the Fed to keep rates on hold next

month.

Fed Chair Jerome Powell cautioned on Friday it was still too

soon to know what the right response from the central bank ought

to be.