Forex news for Asia trading Friday 21 February 2020

Coronavirus related:

Other:

Once again coronavirus news dominated the session, but currency response was limited. Cases in China continue to grow but cases in South Korea are now being reported at a rapid rate. Two cities have been placed into 'lockdown' (that's my take, the Korean government has declared them special zones) and cases have been reported inside three branches of the military. Add in a couple of new cases in Australia (two passengers from the Diamond Princess cruise ship flown into Darwin tested positive).

If there is anything positive that might be able to be taken away from the outbreak in South Korea its that we get better information on the spread of the infection than we have been getting out of China, where official figures have been questioned repeatedly. Its not much, but better information will help fight the outbreak.

AUD/USD dipped under 0.6600 on the session, its lowest since 2009. NZD/USD fell also.

OK, what else? The item of most interest on the data calendar was Japanese inflation, national CPI for January. It goes without saying that the three measures are all way below target, well under 1% (the BOJ target is 2 if you need reminding) . And, if the impact of the sales tax is stripped out (as it should be) they are around (under) 0.5% and change. USD/JPY has not had much movement here during the Asian session. Fin Min Aso had a few comments on the past two days volatility (see bullets above).



