TOKYO, Aug 2 Reuters The safehaven Japanese yen and Swiss franc traded near multimonth highs against the dollar on Friday after an unexpected slump in U.S. manufacturing fuelled fears of a downturn, sending stocks and bond yields tumbling.

Sterling stumbled to a fresh onemonth low following a nearly 1 plunge overnight as the Bank of England kicked off its interestrate cutting cycle in a finely balanced decision. The euro languished close to a onemonth trough following dovish comments from a European Central Bank official.

The yen was steady at 149.49 per dollar as of 0400 GMT, after strengthening as far as 148.51 overnight for the first time since midMarch. The franc gained about 0.1 to 0.87225 per dollar, and earlier reached its highest since early February at 0.8722.

They were the only two major currencies to outperform the dollar overnight, which itself draws safehaven flows, paradoxically even when the United States is the cause for concern.

Megacaps led a Wall Street selloff on Thursday that reverberated in Asia, with Japan39;s Nikkei plunging as much as 5.3, South Korea39;s Kospi tumbling 3.3 and Hong Kong39;s Hang Seng dropping 2.

U.S. 10year Treasury yields plunged as much as 14 basis points to 3.965 overnight, breaching the psychological 4 barrier for the first time in six months, and extended those declines in Asia to a low as 3.944.

Following the dour manufacturing numbers, traders now see 27.5 odds that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates by 50…