On Thursday , Asian Indices wobbled and the safe-havens of the Japanese yen, gold and bonds rose as the number of new corona-virus cases at the outbreak's epicenter jumped sharply. China's Hubei province, the epicenter of the virus, reported 242 new deaths and confirmed 14,840 new cases on Feb. 12, a dramatic rise from the 2,015 new cases a day earlier.
Overnight, World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus had warned the apparent slowdown in the spread of the epidemic should be viewed with "extreme caution." "This outbreak could still go in any direction," he told a briefing in Geneva. More than 1,300 people have died from the epidemic in China and the total number of cases in Hubei province now stands at 48,206.The increase came as provincial officials adopted a new methodology for counting infections although it was not immediately clear how the new methods affected the results, nor why the death toll rose so sharply.
Earlier in the Day:
The spike dashed hopes that the virus was slowing, knocking U.S. e-mini stock futures in to negative territory, sending the Japanese yen 0.2% higher against the dollar and pushing yields on U.S. 10-year Treasuries about 3 basis points lower.
It was a quiet day on the Asian economic calendar this morning, with economic data limited to UK RICS house price figures.
While there were no material stats, monetary policy was in focus, with RBA Governor Lowe speaking this morning.
Bank of Canada Governor Poloz and RBNZ Governor Orr were also scheduled to speak early in the day.
While monetary policy chatter drew interest, updates from China provided direction early in the session.
News of a sharp jump in coronavirus COVID-19 deaths on Wednesday and spike in new cases reversed the market’s laissez-faire sentiment from Wednesday.
The Dollar, retail sales and consumer sentiment figures due out tomorrow are the key drivers for the week. At the time of writing, the Dollar Spot Index was down by 0.05% to 98.998.
The yen last traded at 109.94 per dollar while export-exposed currencies, which had rallied on confidence the virus could be contained, retraced rises.
Lagarde’s hands tied, for now, parity remains off the table though that could change if we begin to see a more marked spread of the coronavirus beyond Asia… That really would bring down the ECB’s hope of support from consumer spending. At the time of writing, the EUR was flat at $1.0874.
The Australian dollar lost 0.2% at 0.6726, as did China's yuan at 6.9791 and the Korean won at 1180.
Gold rose 0.3% to $1573.30 per ounce.
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