That’s the way it always used to be but the USD fell out of favour after the dot-com bust and the risk aversion play became JPY and CHF buying instead. Now that the US economy seems to have stabilised and has undertaken some remedial measures, the market is happier to buy the USD as a safe-haven play. The EUR and the GBP look much too risky, the commodity currencies and the JPY to a certain extent are overvalued, and the SNB keeps intervening in the CHF market. This USD bullish phase might be with us for quite a while to come.