On Wednesday
Asian stock markets continued their retreat in reaction to oil’s sharp losses in its previous session. Even the news that the U.S. Senate passed a $484 billion pandemic relief package overnight failed to assuage investor jitters. The package is set to be debated by the House as soon as Thursday.
The safe-haven Japanese yen held at 107.83 per dollar and both the U.S. currency and yen were steady against the oil-sensitive Canadian dollar and Norwegian krone. The Australian dollar battled to pull ahead, but hit resistance around $0.6300.
USD/KRW looks to retest 3-week highs above 1,240 amid risk-off. Dollar bounce, a potential sharp GDP contraction for the South underpin. No fresh update on N. Korean leader Kim Jong-Un’s health condition.
Oil bears, riding on the fever-pitch negative sentiment in crude since Monday’s historic subzero prices, pounded the West Texas Intermediate’s June contract, forcing it to settle down 43%, or $8.86, at $11.57 per barrel.
Bank of Japan (BOJ) is considering further downgrading its economic and price projections when it meets for its monetary policy review meeting next Tuesday.
Mexico reduced the benchmark rate by 50 basis points to 6% at an unscheduled meeting on Tuesday. Officials had already surprised markets with a similar, half-percentage point cut on March 20.
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