Forex news for Asia trading Thursday 12 March 2020
- Coronavirus - US State Department has issued a heath advisory for all overseas travel
- Bank of Japan Governor Kuroda to meet with Japanese PM Abe
- South Korea reports 114 new cases of coronavirus, 6 more deaths
- ICYMI: Russia’s deputy energy minister - output cuts would not have worked
- US President Trump tries to stem the damage his speech mistake triggered
- Coronavirus - More on the US travel ban on incoming Europeans
- Oil a big casualty of the Trump speech on coronavirus - down circa 7%
- Coronavirus - Trump has cancelled his events in Colorado and Nevada this week
- Coronavirus - US NBA has shut down - suspending games until further notice
- JP Morgan says stock market selling by hedge funds is mostly done
- Tom Hanks says he and Rita Wilson have tested positive for coronavirus.
- USD/JPY getting hit lower after US President Trump coronavirus speech
- US President Trump coronavirus pandemic speech - US banning all travel from Europe for next 30 days
- White House has ordered federal health officials to treat top-level coronavirus meetings as classified
- Coronavirus - UK Times says all soccer matches in the UK to be closed to fans
- Mainland China coronavirus numbers: 15 new confirmed cases and 11 new deaths
- UK data - RICS monthly house price balance for February: 29% (expected 20%, prior 17%)
- Australian Treasurer Frydenberg says monetary policy globally is exhausted
- Japan PPI for February -0.4 % m/m (expected -0.3%)
- US Congress' attending doctor says expects coronavirus infections to number 70 to 150 million
- Australia coronavirus economic package AUD 17.6bn stimulus
- Coronavirus - Goldman Sachs cuts its Japanese share index target
- Coronavirus - CME will close its Chicago trading floor at end-Friday
- Coronavirus - Trump urged Mnuchin to pressure Fed’s Powell for more stimulus
- UK government expected to approve more stringent rigorous measures to counter coronavirus outbreak
- Coronavirus - US President Trump has made face masks available to health workers
- Trump on the coronavirus - "We must beat it as quickly and safely as possible"
- New Zealand - recession and more prolonged slowdown now looking highly probable
- Coronavirus - US Washington state confirmed cases 366, death to 29
- Coronavirus - Italy publishes guidelines for doctors, nurses on who will get treatment (and who won't)
- Today's White House Task Force briefing on coronavirus has been cancelled
- EU Trade Commissioner Hogan's trip to US, Canada next week cancelled due to coronavirus concerns
- Coronavirus - Italy has ordered all shops to close, except pharmacies and groceries
- More on the rocket attack in Iraq - death toll
- Coronavirus - NZ fin min Robertson says economic relief package to be announced next week
Early news from Italy was of a further tightening of restrictions - the Prime Minister has ordered shops to shut apart from supermarkets/groceries and pharmacies (see bullets above for more).
Market attention then switched to the upcoming address from US President Trump, from the White House at 0100GMT.
Ahead of this there was the usual rally on hopes of some sort of substantive steps to be announced, on both health measures and economic relief (we saw such moves time and again during the trade talks with China). Globex trade on emini equity futures saw a good rally into the speech. (As an aside, the CME is shutting trading floors due to coronavirus risk, trade will continue on screen - ie. Globex - see bullets above).
While awaiting President Trump we had news out of Australia of an economic stimulus package, the Treasurer saying he expected it to add up to 1.5% to current quarter GDP (which might be enough to stave off recession? Time will tell).
During his speech President Trump said that he was banning all travellers from Europe for the next 30 days. Unfortunately the President also said that ban applied to cargo and goods (more on this in a moment, but first, the impact). Equities cratered while yen and CHF surged, and lower for AUD and NZD.
OK, back to the cargo comment - it was wrong. The ban in no way applies to trade, only to people (does not apply to US citizens returning and it does not apply to travellers from the UK). The President tweeted a retraction of his cargo ban comment during his speech but not before tremendous losses for equities. The error overshadowed pretty much anything else in the speech (there was very little on health measures anyway) and thus it was an opportunity missed for the President to calm nerves.
Oil cratered, again, and gold has not benefited from the market turmoil.
Oil:
On top of all this Tom Hanks announced he and his wife had contracted coronavirus! And the US NBA has shut down (temporarily).
Regional equities:
- Nikkei: -5.22%
- Hang Seng: -3.84%
- Shanghai: -1.34%
- ASX: -6.85%
