passersby wearing protective masks are reflected on an electronic board displaying stock prices outside a brokerage amid the coronavirus disease covid19 outbreak in tokyo japan september 29 2021 reutersissei kato sydney nov 26 reuters  stocks fell and headed for their largest weekly drop in nearly two months on friday while safe haven assets such as bonds and the yen rallied as a new virus variant added to swirling concerns about future growth and higher us interest rates the variant detected by scientists in south africa may be able to evade immune responses and has prompted britain to hurriedly introduce travel restrictions on south africa read more south africas rand fell 1 in early trade as did us crude futures  sp 500 futures fell 04 while the risksensitive australian and new zealand dollars dropped to threemonth lows the trigger was news of this covid variantand the uncertainty as to what this means said ray attrill head of fx strategy at national australia bank in sydney you shoot first and ask questions later when this sort of news erupts japans nikkei n225 was down 17 in early trade and australian shares axjo fell 06 mscis broadest index of asiapacific shares outside japan miapj0000pus was down 02 for a weekly fall of 1 and world stocks miwd00000pus while still near record highs headed for a weekly fall of 07 the largest since early october little is known about the new variant however scientists told reporters it has very unusual constellation of mutations concerning because they could help it evade the bodys immune response and make it more transmissible read more british authorities think it is the most significant variant to date and worry it could resist vaccines moves in treasuries were sharp at the open in tokyo  following the thanksgiving holiday  as yields quickly pulled back some of the weeks gains benchmark 10year yields fell 5 basis points to 15927 the yen jumped about 04 to 11491 per dollar and gold rose 02 to 1792 per ounce the moves come against a backdrop of concern about covid19 outbreaks driving restrictions on movement and activity in europe and as markets aggressively price rate rises next year in the united states