Dollar slips ahead of U.S. payrolls data
Safehaven yen and Swiss franc rise
Cryptocurrencies under pressure

Sept 4 Reuters The Japanese yen firmed against the dollar on Wednesday as investors scurried to safer assets after a sharp selloff on Wall Street in the prior session sparked by concerns about the U.S. economy and tech sector valuations.

The catalyst was ostensibly some soft U.S. manufacturing data, which fanned worries about a hard landing for the world39;s biggest economy, with traders already nervous ahead of the crucial monthly payrolls numbers on Friday.

U.S. equity indexes slid on Tuesday, with AI chip giant Nvidia tumbling nearly 10. The riskoff mood spilled over to Asia and Europe on Wednesday.

It39;s a bit reminiscent of the early August selloff where you didn39;t really need a catalyst. It39;s just that you39;re at the highs in risky assets, said Alex Jekov, head of G10 FX strategy at BNP Paribas.

The dollar is softer versus lowyielding currencies because they are getting a bid from the riskoff environment. But what is different from August is that U.S. rates aren39;t participating quite as much. It seems to be mainly an equities story.

The yen strengthened as much as 0.4 to 144.89 per dollar before last trading up about 0.3 at 144.95 as of 1144 GMT, following a 1 rally overnight.

Dollaryen hit a multimonth low of 141.68 in early August after a surprisingly weak U.S. payrolls data and an interest rate hike from the Bank of Japan triggered a…