By CountingPips.com
The U.S. dollar and Japanese yen surged sharply higher against the other major currencies in forex trading today as risk aversion again shook the financial markets. The U.S. stock markets and risk positive currencies were rocked hard by risk aversion in what was the most volatile trading day since the height of the financial crisis. Fears over the debt crisis in Greece and the other high-debt countries in the Eurozone put investors in a full-force selling mode while the 
Greek government voted to approve austerity measures and protesters demonstrated for the second consecutive day.
The U.S. stock markets tanked dramatically in afternoon trading before pulling back. The Dow Jones at one point lost almost 1,000 points then quickly turned around most of those losses to finish the day down by almost 3 percent and a total of 347 points. The Nasdaq took a 82 point loss today while the S&P500 fell by over 35 points. Oil declined by almost 4 percent to cross under $80 per barrel and to level at $76.78 per barrel. Gold acted as a safe haven asset and jumped by $34.40 to ascend to the $1,209.00 per ounce level.
The dollar and yen, the two major safe haven currencies, climbed sharply against the euro, British pound, Swiss franc, Australian dollar, New Zealand dollar and the Canadian dollar as the day unfolded. Head-to-head, the dollar was sharply lower versus the yen and fell to a one-month low (chart below).
There could be more volatility in the markets into tomorrow as we can expect the results of the U.K. election for Parliament and the release of market-moving U.S. government’s nonfarm employment report as well as Eurozone countries voting to approve the latest Greek bailout package.
USD/JPY Daily Chart – The US Dollar today plummeting against the Japanese Yen in forex trading to touch a one-month low. The pair opened the day around the 93.87 exchange rate and fell all the way to a low of 88.01 before pulling back and paring some of those losses. Amazingly, the USD/JPY had touched a high of almost 95.00 yesterday and then today briefly had lost all of the gains it had made over the previous month, touching the 100% fibonacci retracement level that started on March 4th.
