Australia dollar takes breather from Omicron shock

SYDNEY: The Australian dollar recovered against the greenback on Monday after sliding last week as spooked investors scaled back bets of global monetary tightening on worries the Omicron coronavirus variant may be harder to combat with vaccines.

The Aussie was 0.4% higher at $0.7142 at 0248 GMT after hitting a three-month trough of $0.7115 on Friday as countries began to impose travel curbs and shut their borders to South Africa, where the new variant was first detected.