The USD remains firm on risk aversion as falling Asian equities help support the strength in the buck. After the 223 pt fall in the DJIA, Asian stocks have come under pressure with a wide range of sectors sold including semiconductor stocks, banking stocks, real estate and resource stocks. The USD not only rallied in late NY but extended gains in the Asian morning with EUR-USD dropping to 1.. As is typically the case when the USD gains against the currencies, the JPY gains on risk aversion as well with a USD-JPY low of 96.22 seen in very early Asian dealings. Trading has been very quiet today say traders, with most currencies remaining range-bound for the session after the early gains in the USD. Meanwhile, A slight lift in the Nikkei is underpinning AUD this afternoon with AUD-USD currently at 0.6468 and the of the 0.6447-0.6470 range that has held for the last three hours. AUD-USD dropped to lows of 0.6430 early in the session, with the decline fueled by the RBA minutes after the minutes revealed that more steep interest rates are to come. The outlook for commodities remains a negative for the AUD as well particularly with the Nikkei news that commodity trading in Japan is expected to be cut. Recent RBA intervention has been a factor stemming AUD losses and attracting buyers on dips below 0.6400 and has also hampered the usual correlation of the AUD to the CRB and the GSCI index. Losses on both of these commodity indexes point to further AUD weakness. However, along with the recent intervention, dealers have reported buying by Asian central banks on the AUD over the last 24 hours, though this has not prevented the latest slide in the currency. Buyers are still eyed on dips under 0.6400 with selling interest ahead of 0.6700. The Australian stock index has closed at a fresh four-year low today.