The euro skidded to four-year lows on Monday and stocks and commodities tumbled after disappointing US job data cast doubt on the strength of its economic recovery and as Hungary's debt problems spurred investors to dump riskier assets.
The euro fell below $1.1900 in early Asian trade on worries that Hungry will become the next casualty in Europe's growing debt crisis.
At one point it was down over 0.9 percent from levels seen late in New York on Friday.
Some stop-loss selling around $1.1950 aggravated the slide. Traders said more aggressive stop-loss selling may be had if euro falls under $1.1850.
Against the yen, euro skidded below 108.33 yen to its lowest in over eight years.
Riskier bets were cut across the board. Japan's Nikkei index and the MSCI index for Asian stocks outside Japan both fell 3.6 percent.
S&P futures were down 1 percent, pointing to further losses on Wall Street later in the day, after US stocks fell on Friday to their lowest since February.
Australian dollar and South Korean won, both of which extremely vulnerable to turns in demand for risk, also slugged.
The Australian dollar struggled at $0.8118. The won fell to a two-week low at 1,237.4/8.6 per dollar.
Assets with safe-haven appeal benefitted from the rout from risk. Investors sought safety in the liquidity of US Treasuries, further adding to demand for the US dollar.
The US dollar index hit a 15-month high of 88.7.
A firmer US dollar fuelled pressures on commodity prices. Oil dropped nearly 2 percent and Shanghai copper , zinc and aluminium futures sunk across the board.
Investors who want to play it safe and sell risky bets did not have to look far for reasons.
US economic data showed on Friday that the recovery in the labour market was not as strong as hoped, with hiring by US private employers slowing sharply in May.
Although some analysts said cautious hiring plans of US firms did not herald another recession in the US economy, the world's largest, stock investors paid no heed. Major US stock indexes fell by up to 3.6 percent.
Remarks from Hungary's government on Friday that Hungary may suffer a possible Greek-style debt crisis further walloped already fragile investor confidence.
Even though Hungary's economic fundamentals are far better than Greece's, nervous investors still took fright from the comments.
