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- There was keen risk aversion in the marketplace Monday as most world stock markets were under selling pressure. U.S. stock indexes were seeing solid losses and at or near fresh for-the-move lows in afternoon trading Monday. Dropping crude oil prices are once again being blamed for weakening equities prices. Nymex crude oil prices were trading just below $30.00 a barrel in afternoon action Monday. U.S. Treasuries were also seeing safe-haven buying interest Monday.

- The yen held at its highest in over a year against the dollar early on Tuesday, having soared broadly as a selloff in European and U.S. stocks stoked demand for the safe-haven currency.

The dollar was last at 115.57 yen JPY= after coming within a whisker of 115.00, a low not seen since November 2014. The Swiss franc, another traditional safe haven, hit its highest in six weeks CHF=.

Against the greenback, the euro flirted with $1.1200 EUR= after bouncing off Monday's low around $1.1086. The common currency benefited from a negative correlation with European stocks, which slumped to their lowest in more than two years.

The dollar fell to a 15-month low against the yen JPY= on Monday as a renewed slide in oil prices and doubts about the effectiveness of the Bank of Japan's negative interest-rate policy drove investors back into the safe-haven currency. It was trading around 115.48 yen on Tuesday morning.

- Japanese Finance Minister Taro Aso on Tuesday warned against a recent rise in the yen and said he would continue to closely monitor the currency market.

- President Barack Obama's fiscal 2017 budget will call for an 11 percent increase in funding for the Securities and Exchange Commission and a 32 percent increase for the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, a White House official said on Monday.

Obama will propose that the SEC be given $1.8 billion and the CFTC $330 million in the budget, economic adviser Jeffrey Zients said in a blog post on the White House website.

- Greece’s lenders still need to be persuaded that Athens can plug a bigger-than-expected fiscal gap when talks on reforms needed under an international bailout resume next week, the finance minister says.

Talks between the heads of the EU/IMF mission reviewing Greece’s progress and the government over a tough pension reform plan, fiscal targets and the handling of bad loans, took a break on Friday after four days of meetings.

They are due to continue “sometime next week” and then conclude two weeks later, Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos said on Monday, adding that technical teams were discussing the size of the fiscal gap for 2016 and the country’s performance last year.

- Crude oil prices slid lower Monday, pushing US oil below $30 a barrel, after weekend talks between OPEC kingpin Saudi Arabia and Venezuela dashed hopes for a reduction in production.

US benchmark West Texas Intermediate for March delivery sank $1.20 (3.9 percent) to $29.69 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

In London, Brent North Sea crude for delivery in April, the European benchmark, finished at $32.88 a barrel, down $1.18 (3.5 percent) from Friday.

The meeting between Venezuela and Saudi oil ministers appeared to be a washout as Saudi Arabia continued to show unwillingness to support an emergency OPEC meeting on low prices, said Tim Evans of Citi Futures.

Reference: Reuters, Kitco, brecorder