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Investor flock to safe havens, Swiss franc at 10-year high

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Gold races above $3,200 per ounce to record high

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Bond selloff resumes as investors flee US assets

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Asian stocks take a beating in brutal end to week

By Ankur Banerjee

SINGAPORE, April 11 (Reuters) - Global stocks slumped

and the dollar sank further on Friday, while a manic bond

selloff took hold in a brutal end to the week of tit-for-tat

worldwide tariffs that have fed fears of a deep recession and

shaken investor confidence in U.S. assets.

The anxiety has sparked a rush into safe havens, sending the

Swiss franc soaring to a decade high against the dollar, and

gold to a new peak after a brief but massive relief rally

following U.S. President Donald Trump's move to temporarily

lower tariffs on many countries.

The selloff in U.S. Treasuries picked up pace during Asian

hours, with the 10-year note yield rising to 4.475%,

gaining over 40 basis points in the week, the biggest increase

since 2001, LSEG data showed.

Analysts and investors across the globe have pointed to this

week's sharp sell-off in Treasuries and weakness in the dollar

as evidence that confidence in the world's biggest economy has

been shaken.

"There's clearly an exodus from U.S. assets. A falling

currency and bond market is never a good sign," said Kyle Rodda,

senior financial markets analyst at Capital.com. "This goes

beyond pricing in a growth slowdown and trade uncertainty."

In Asia, Japan's Nikkei tumbled 4.5% on the day,

while stocks in South Korea fell 1.7%. MSCI's broadest

index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was

0.5% lower.

U.S. futures for S&P 500 and Nasdaq fell

about 1% each after a sharp drop overnight.

"The short-term outlook for global risk assets remains

uncertain given growth and inflation concerns, fluid sentiments

and fast-changing developments on the trade and tariff fronts,"

said Vasu Menon, managing director of investment strategy at

OCBC Bank in Singapore.

Investors are grappling with worries over the escalating

Sino-U.S. trade war after Trump ratcheted up tariffs on Chinese

imports, raising them effectively to 145%.

China has hit back, hiking its tariffs on the U.S. with each

Trump increase, raising fears that Beijing may jack up duties

above the current 84%.

Chinese stocks made a subdued start on Friday. The blue-chip

CSI300 Index was off 0.5% while Hong Kong's benchmark

Hang Seng was down 0.38%.

James Athey, fixed income manager at Marlborough, said the

outlook remains darker and more clouded in uncertainty than it

did a month ago. "There are still so many unanswered and

unanswerable questions."

DOLLAR LOSES ITS CROWN

The U.S. dollar has faced relentless selling in the past few

weeks, with traders seeking shelter in the Japanese yen

, the Swiss franc as well as the euro

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On Friday, the dollar sank to its lowest in 10 years against

the Swiss franc and a six-month low against the yen. The euro

surged 1.7% to $1.13855, a level last seen in February 2022.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback

against six other units, fell below 100 for the first time since

July 2023. The dollar's slide provided relief to some of the

currencies in emerging markets, including the ringgit.

Markets mostly shrugged off data from U.S. Labor Department

that showed consumer prices unexpectedly fell in March although

the improvement in inflation is unlikely to be sustained in the

wake of tariffs.

Meanwhile, a violent U.S. Treasury selloff this week,

evoking the COVID-era "dash for cash", had reignited fears of

fragility in the world's biggest bond market.

Thirty-year bond yields rose to 4.90%, on course

for their biggest weekly jump since at least 1982, LSEG data

showed.

In commodities, gold prices scaled a record high on

safe haven flows. It was last up 1.25% at $3,214 per ounce.

Oil prices slipped in early trading on Friday after settling

more than $2 per barrel lower on Thursday. U.S. West Texas

Intermediate crude futures fell 0.48%, while Brent crude

futures fell 0.46%.

(Editing by Shri Navaratnam)