TRENDING:

XAU/USD

Silver

Forex Today: Surge in new China coronavirus cases kills risk appetite, USD in bullish consolidation

Dhwani Mehta FXStreet

A flight to safety theme emerged in Asia this Thursday after the appetite for risk assets was killed by a surge in new coronavirus cases in China’s Hubei province. The epicenter reported 14,840 new cases after implementing a change to the counting method, as to account for the number of "clinically diagnosed" patients. The province also reported 242 new deaths, bringing their total number to 1,310.

Amid renewed coronavirus fears, the Asian stocks dropped in tandem with the US equity futures and Treasury yields while the safe-havens such as gold and the yen benefited the most.

Within the G10 currency basket, the Japanese yen bounced-off a three-week low vs. the greenback, having dragging USD/JPY back below the 110 mark. AUD/USD witnessed a sharp drop to 0.6708 lows, as markets overlooked the comments from the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) Governor Lowe, amid virus concerns. However, the spot managed to recover some ground, although the move lacked follow-through. The Kiwi also piggy-backed its OZ counterpart and traded with moderate losses around 0.6450 region. Meanwhile, USD/CAD traded modestly flat around 1.3250 amid a steady decline in oil prices.

Among the European currencies, the EUR/USD pair remained vulnerable near a 33-month low of 1.0865 reached a day before. The cable traded on the back foot near 1.2950 amid persistent broad US dollar strength, with the DXY stuck near a four-month high of 99.05.

Main topics in Asia

UK’s Javid: Frictionless trade with the EU would be ‘over’ – BBC

UK house prices jump by most since 2017 in post-election bounce - RICS

RBNZ’s Hawkesby: Have 'genuine neutral bias' on interest rates

S&P: Australia credit rating unlikely to be hit by coronavirus

RBA and BoC governors speaking: Mixed outlooks on economy and coronavirus

Coronavirus update killing risk assets, AUD/JPY -0.66% in a heartbeat

China's top envoy to the UN : China's efforts are achieving positive results, has the ability and confidence to defeat the coronavirus outbreak

US: CDC confirms 14th case of China coronavirus, airlines extend China flight cancellations into late April

China should increase fiscal input to safeguard funds for epidemic prevention

‘Clinically diagnosed cases’ included in Hubei to effectively fix a loophole in COVID-19 spread – Global Times

China’s NHC: Places in Hubei that have a coronavirus outbreak should immediately take the same measures as Wuhan

Key focus ahead

There is nothing of note in terms of the economic events in the EUR calendar today, except for the final print of the German Consumer Price Index (CPI) due for release at 0700 GMT.

The revival of the coronavirus scare will continue to drive the broader market sentiment amid the lack of fundamentals from the UK docket as well.

The USD traders will eagerly await the US CPI report, due at 1330 GMT, for the next direction in light of the recent upsurge. Also, the second-tier US weekly Jobless Claims data will drop at the same time. Next of note remains the speech by the European Central Bank (ECB) policymaker Panetta for some near-term trading impulse.

EUR/USD: At 33-month low as traders dial up ECB rate cut bets

EUR/USD trades near 1.0865, the lowest level since May 2017, on dovish ECB expectations. The US dollar is attracting haven flows amid coronavirus fears. The downside may gather pace if the US Consumer Price Index (CPI) for January beats estimates by a big margin.

GBP/USD keeps it below 1.3000 amid UK politics, Brexit and coronavirus

GBP/USD justifies Wednesday’s bearish Doji while snapping the earlier rise. While pessimism surrounding Brexit and UK’s political drama have recently weighed on the quote, fresh risk of coronavirus seems to be the latest one to drag the pair to the south.

US Consumer Price Index January Preview: Inflation’s academic exercise

Monthly CPI rate expected to be unchanged, core to rise. Annual core and headline rates to climb slightly. Inflation is a sidelight to Fed policy focused on economic growth.

GMT	Event	Actual	Consensus	Previous
Wednesday, Feb 12
19:00	USD Monthly Budget Statement	$-33.0B	$-11.5B	$-13.3B
19:10	NZD RBNZ's Governor Orr speech
n/a	NZD REINZ House Price Index (MoM)			0.5%
23:50	JPY Producer Price Index (YoY)	1.7%	1.5%	0.9%
23:50	JPY Producer Price Index (MoM)	0.2%	0.0%	0.1%
Thursday, Feb 13
00:00	AUD Consumer Inflation Expectations	4.0%	4.3%	4.7%
00:01	GBP RICS Housing Price Balance	17%	3%	0% Revised from -2%
00:15	CAD BoC's Governor Poloz speech
00:15	AUD RBA's Governor Lowe speech
05:30	EUR Retail Sales (YoY)	3.9%		3.5% Revised from 3.3%
06:00	EUR Current Account			€0.2B
06:30	EUR ILO Unemployment		8.5%	8.6%
07:00	EUR Consumer Price Index (YoY)		1.7%	1.7%
07:00	EUR Consumer Price Index (MoM)		-0.6%	-0.6%
07:00	EUR Harmonized Index of Consumer Prices (YoY)		1.6%	1.6%
07:00	EUR Harmonized Index of Consumer Prices (MoM)		-0.8%	-0.8%
07:00	TRY Industrial Production (YoY)		7.0%	5.1%
07:00	RON Consumer Price Index		3.6%	4.0%
08:00	HUF Core Consumer Price Index (YoY)		4.0%	3.9%
08:00	HUF Consumer Price Index (YoY)		4.3%	4.0%
08:30	EUR Gross Domestic Product s.a (QoQ)		0.3%	0.4%
08:30	EUR Gross Domestic Product n.s.a (YoY)		1.7%	1.9%
09:00	PLN Gross Domestic Product Qtr (YoY)			3.9%
09:00	CZK Current Account (MoM)		-8.00B	-3.19B
13:00	PLN Current Account		€-261M	€1,457M
13:00	RUB Central Bank Reserves $			$562.3B
13:30	USD Continuing Jobless Claims		1.745M	1.751M
13:30	USD Initial Jobless Claims		210K	202K
13:30	USD Initial Jobless Claims 4-week average			211.75K
13:30	USD Consumer Price Index (YoY)		2.4%	2.3%
13:30	USD Consumer Price Index ex Food & Energy (YoY)		2.2%	2.3%
13:30	USD Consumer Price Index ex Food & Energy (MoM)		0.2%	0.1%
13:30	USD Consumer Price Index n.s.a (MoM)		257.863	256.974
13:30	USD Consumer Price Index (MoM)		0.2%	0.2%
13:30	USD Consumer Price Index Core s.a		266.398	265.921
15:00	COP Retail Sales (YoY)		5.5%	4.4%
15:00	COP Industrial output (YoY)			-1.5%
15:30	USD EIA Natural Gas Storage Change			-137B
16:30	USD 4-Week Bill Auction			1.54%
17:00	EUR ECB's Panetta speech
18:00	USD 30-Year Bond Auction			2.341%
19:00	MXN Central Bank Interest Rate		7.00%	7.25%
19:00	ARS Consumer Price Index (MoM)		3.3%	3.7%
21:00	KRW Import Price Growth (YoY)		2.6%	3.4%
21:00	KRW Export Price Growth (YoY)		-1.5%	-3.1%
21:30	NZD Business NZ PMI		51.0	49.3
21:45	NZD Food Price Index (MoM)		0.2%	-0.2%
23:50	JPY Foreign Bond Investment			¥-150.2B
23:50	JPY Foreign Investment in Japan Stocks			¥-295.6B
Friday, Feb 14
02:00	CNY Retail Sales (YoY)			8%
02:00	CNY Industrial Production (YoY)			6.9%
02:00	CNY NBS Press Conference
02:00	CNY Fixed Asset Investment (YTD) (YoY)			5.4%
02:00	KRW Trade Balance			$0.62B
03:00	KRW Money Supply Growth		7.8%	8.1%
04:30	JPY Tertiary Industry Index (MoM)		-1.6%	1.3%
06:00	EUR Gross Domestic Product (YoY)			2.3%
06:30	INR WPI Inflation		2.92%	2.59%
07:00	EUR Gross Domestic Product (QoQ)		0.1%	0.1%
07:00	EUR Gross Domestic Product w.d.a (YoY)		0.4%	0.5%
07:00	EUR Gross Domestic Product (YoY)		0.2%	1.0%
07:00	TRY Current Account Balance		$-3.050B	$-0.518B
07:00	DKK Gross Domestic Product (QoQ)			0.4%
07:00	RON Gross Domestic Product		3.3%	3.0%
07:30	CHF Producer and Import Prices (YoY)		-1.5%	-1.7%
07:30	CHF Producer and Import Prices (MoM)		0.0%	0.1%
08:00	EUR Consumer Price Index (MoM)		-1%	-1%
08:00	EUR HICP (MoM)		-1.4%	-1.4%
08:00	EUR HICP (YoY)		1.1%	1.1%
08:00	EUR Consumer Price Index (YoY)		1.1%	1.1%
08:00	HUF Gross Domestic Product (YoY)		4.5%	5.0%
08:00	CZK Consumer Price Index (YoY)		3.2%	3.2%
08:00	CZK Consumer Price Index (MoM)		1.0%	0.2%
08:00	CZK Gross Domestic Product (YoY)		1.9%	2.5%
08:00	EUR Headline Inflation (YoY)			3%
08:00	EUR Core Inflation (YoY)			2.9%
08:00	EUR Headline Inflation (MoM)			-0.1%
08:00	EUR Core Inflation (MoM)		-0.1%	-0.2%
08:00	EUR Gross Domestic Product Prelim (YoY)		2.3%	1.3%
08:30	EUR Gross Domestic Product (QoQ)			0.3%
09:00	EUR Trade Balance EU			€0.702B
09:00	EUR Global Trade Balance		€4.946B	€4.872B
09:00	PLN Consumer Price Index (YoY)		4.2%	3.4%
09:00	PLN Consumer Price Index (MoM)		0.6%	0.8%
09:30	EUR Gross Domestic Product (YoY)			1.9%
10:00	EUR Consumer Price Index - Harmonized (YoY)		1.2%	1.1%
10:00	EUR Consumer Price Index (YoY)		1.0%	0.8%
10:00	JPY BoJ's Amamiya speech
10:00	EUR Trade Balance n.s.a.		€21.4B	€20.7B
10:00	EUR Trade Balance s.a.		€21.6B	€19.2B
10:00	EUR Gross Domestic Product s.a. (YoY)		1%	1%
10:00	EUR Gross Domestic Product s.a. (QoQ)		0.1%	0.1%
10:00	EUR Employment Change (QoQ)		0.1%	0.1%
10:00	EUR Employment Change (YoY)		0.8%	0.9%
11:00	ILS Consumer Price Index (YoY)		0.7%	0.6%
11:00	ILS Consumer Price Index (MoM)			0%
11:30	INR Bank Loan Growth		6.7%	7.2%
11:30	INR FX Reserves, USD			$471.3B
13:30	USD Retail Sales ex Autos (MoM)		0.3%	0.7%
13:30	USD Retail Sales Control Group		0.3%	0.5%
13:30	USD Retail Sales (MoM)		0.3%	0.3%
13:30	USD Export Price Index (YoY)		-0.4%	-0.7%
13:30	USD Import Price Index (MoM)		-0.2%	0.3%
13:30	USD Import Price Index (YoY)		2.5%	0.5%
13:30	USD Export Price Index (MoM)		-0.1%	-0.2%
14:15	USD Capacity Utilization		76.8%	77.0%
14:15	USD Industrial Production (MoM)		-0.2%	-0.3%
15:00	USD Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index		99.5	99.8
15:00	USD Business Inventories		0.1%	-0.2%
16:00	COP Gross Domestic Product (YoY)		3.1%	3.3%
18:00	USD Baker Hughes US Oil Rig Count			676
20:30	USD CFTC Gold NC Net Positions			$299.8K
20:30	USD CFTC Oil NC Net Positions			397.4K
20:30	USD CFTC USD NC Net Positions			$46.1K
20:30	GBP CFTC GBP NC Net Positions			£13K
20:30	JPY CFTC JPY NC Net Positions			¥-21.9K
20:30	EUR CFTC EUR NC Net Positions			€-75.1K
20:30	AUD CFTC AUD NC Net Positions			$-43.3K

Author

Dhwani Mehta

FXStreet

Residing in Mumbai (India), Dhwani is a Senior Analyst and Manager of the Asian session at FXStreet. She has over 10 years of experience in analyzing and covering the global financial markets, with specialization in Forex and commodities markets.

EUR/USD climbs to daily highs near 1.1820

EUR/USD now picks up pace and advances to the area of daily peaks north of the 1.1800 barrier at the end of the week. The pair’s decent move higher comes against the backdrop of a generalised lack of direction in the FX galaxy and the mild offered stance in the US Dollar.

GBP/USD trims losses, retests 1.3460

After briefly challenging its key 200-day SMA near 1.3440, GBP/USD now manages to regain some balance and revisit the 1.3460 zone on Friday. Cable’s pullback comes as the selling pressure on the Greenback gathers traction, reigniting some recovery in the risk-linked space.

Gold flirts with four-week highs past $5,200

Gold extends its rebound, climbing for a third consecutive session and pushing back above the $5,200 mark per troy ounce on Friday. The move higher continues to draw support from lingering geopolitical tensions and the ongoing uncertainty surrounding US trade policy, both of which are keeping safe-haven demand firmly in play.

Bitcoin, Ethereum and Ripple consolidate with short-term cautious bullish bias

Bitcoin, Ethereum and Ripple are consolidating near key technical areas on Friday, showing mild signs of stabilization after recent volatility. BTC holds above $67,000 despite mild losses so far this week, while ETH hovers around $2,000 after a rejection near its upper consolidation boundary.

Breaking: US and Israel attack Iran, risk aversion to sweep global markets

Early Saturday, United States (US) President Donald Trump announced that the US had begun “major combat operations” in Iran, following Israel’s pre-emptive missile attacks against Tehran.

Starknet unveils strkBTC, shielded Bitcoin transactions on Ethereum Layer 2

Starknet, the Ethereum Layer 2 network developed by StarkWare, today announced strkBTC, a wrapped Bitcoin asset that introduces optional shielding while preserving full DeFi composability.