Japanese Yen, USD/JPY, US Dollar, AUD/USD, Wall Street, Virus – Asia Pacific Market Open
- Anti-risk Japanese Yen and US Dollar cautiously rise as stocks decline
- Markets looked past consumer confidence beat and more stimulus bets
- Wall Street futures suggest a “risk-off” tilt ahead, AUD could weaken
Japanese Yen and US Dollar Cautiously Rise as Wall Street Ends on a Sour Note
The anti-risk Japanese Yen and similarly-behaving US Dollar saw cautious gains on Tuesday. Meanwhile the sentiment-linked Australian and New Zealand Dollars were some of the worst-performing major currencies. Equities wrapped up the last trading day of March on a cautious note in what was the worst month for both the Dow Jones and S&P 500 since the 2008 financial crisis.
For a week we saw market sentiment broadly improve as investors priced in aggressive monetary and fiscal easing across the globe to help combat the coronavirus outbreak. With a 4th potential package from the US perhaps not in the cards until after the Easter holiday, attention arguably started to shift the economic impact of social distancing measures.
Wall Street initially popped after Consumer Confidence unexpectedly clocked in more-optimistic than anticipated. Still this was the most sour reading since early 2017 and the cutoff for the data occurred before last week’s record-breaking surge in jobless claims. Both the S&P 500 and Dow Jones preceded to drop afterwards and closed -1.60% and -1.84% to the downside.
Markets appeared to brush aside clues into what the next local fiscal package could be. President Donald Trump said that he is seeking about a $2 trillion infrastructure package. Meanwhile coronavirus cases in New York rose 9.3k on Tuesday with deaths surpassing 1k. Spain and Italy reported that cases might have peaked and they could be entering a period of stabilization.
Wednesday’s Asia Pacific Trading Session
S&P 500 futures are pointing lower heading into Wednesday’s Asia Pacific trading session. This followed a briefing from the White House where Trump warned of a “painful” two weeks ahead. This is as Deborah Brix – a key public health official in the coronavirus task force – warned that about 200k citizens are projected to succumb to the virus. Prospects that the country may stay in self-isolation mode risks reigniting volatility in stock markets. Ahead, this leaves AUD/USD at risk should haven demand boost the highly-liquid US Dollar.
Japanese Yen Technical Analysis
USD/JPY appears to have slowed its top after prices took out ley rising support from earlier in March – red lines below. Yet guiding the pair lower appears to be “potential” resistance – blue line. A third confirmation point may validate this trend line and maintain the downward trajectory towards lows from last year. Otherwise a push above it towards peaks from 2019 exposes 109.60.
| Change in | Longs | Shorts | OI |
| Daily | 15% | -10% | -3% |
| Weekly | 69% | -37% | -21% |
USD/JPY 4-Hour Chart
Chart Created Using TradingView
--- Written by Daniel Dubrovsky, Currency Analyst for DailyFX.com
To contact Daniel, use the comments section below or @ddubrovskyFX on Twitter
https://www.tradingview.com/symbols/USDJPY/?exchange=FX_IDC
