a picture illustration of us dollar swiss franc british pound and euro bank notes taken in warsaw january 26 2011 reuterskacper pempelfile photo london nov 29 reuters  the dollar edged higher the euro fell and the yen steadied on monday as currency markets reversed some of fridays moves calming after the initial shock of discovering a new coronavirus variant the omicron variant first detected in southern africa triggered global alarm with financial markets selling off on friday on fears that it would disrupt the economic recovery after the twoyear pandemic read more the world health organization said it was not yet clear whether omicron which has been found around the world is more transmissable than other variants or if it causes more severe disease read more markets calmed somewhat on monday however with us stock futures and oil prices rebounding as investors took a more balanced view waiting until the impact of the variant becomes more clear read more the us dollar index which had its biggest oneday drop since may on friday edged back higher and at 0821 gmt was up 01 on the day at 96326  the dollars status as a safehaven currency means it can benefit from uncertainty but it fell on friday because the omicron variant was seen as possibly affecting when the federal reserve and other major central banks will raise rates the euro which rose versus the dollar on friday was down around 04 at 112665  commerzbanks head of fx and commodity research ulrich leuchtmann wrote in a client note that the euro had initially benefited from the omicron variant because of the dovishness of the european central bank if omicron leads to lockdowns and a renewed reduction in economic activity on a global scale all rate hike expectations turn out to be in vain and then they will be priced out again pretty quickly he said and which currencies will be the relative winners of course the ones where rate hikes were never priced in very much in the first place and those were eur jpy and chf japans yen steadied and was up around 02 on the day versus the dollar at 11333 at 0829 gmt  euroyen hit a new ninemonth low  the swiss franc likewise reversed recent moves on friday it had its biggest oneday jump versus the dollar since june 2016 a slightly bigger daily move than at the peak of the first coronavirusinduced market shock in march 2020 but on monday it was down 04 on the day at 09256  analysts said that currency markets would likely remain volatile until the new variant is better understood vaccine efficacy results with the next two weeks will be the most important headline to watch out for as well as whether symptoms are different from that of other variants wrote nomura analyst jordan rochester in a note to clients goldman sachs said it would not change its economic forecasts on the basis of the omicron variant until its likely impact becomes clearer biontech said on friday it may know within two weeks if the vaccine it developed with pfizer needs to be reworked read more meanwhile in cryptocurrencies bitcoin hit a sevenweek low on sunday before picking up at 0837 gmt it was at 5738624 up around 01 on the day but still below its latest alltime high of 69000 which was hit earlier this month 