Market risk appetite wanes following Apple's profit warning. Apple is unlikely to be alone and that doesn't bode well as COVID-19 cases continue to rise.
It was a relatively quiet day on the Asian economic calendar this morning. There were no material stats through the Asian session to provide the markets with direction.
While there were no stats, the RBA meeting minutes from the 4th February meeting garnered some attention in the early part of the day.
Updates from China and the rest of the world on COVID-19 cases and the number of deaths also influenced early on.
According to the latest numbers, the total number of deaths in China rose to 1,868, up by 98. Across China, the number of cases had increased from 70,548 to 72.436 on Monday.
While the numbers continued to show a slower pace of infection, companies were busy delivering warnings, with Apple announcing that it would not meet its quarterly earnings forecast due to the virus outbreak.
Risk aversion early on in the day drove demand for the safe havens…
The RBA meeting minutes once more weighed on the Aussie Dollar, with the minutes revealing a willingness to ease policy further.
According to the 4th of February minutes,
The Aussie Dollar moved from $0.67067 to $0.66954 upon release of the minutes. At the time of writing, the Aussie Dollar was down by 0.36% to $0.6690.
At the time of writing, the Japanese Yen was up by 0.15% to ¥109.72 against the U.S Dollar, while the Kiwi Dollar was down by 0.34% to $0.6414.
It’s a relatively busy day ahead on the economic calendar. ZEW economic sentiment figures out of the Eurozone and Germany for February.
Forecasts are EUR negative, with the expected impact of COVID-19 likely to affect business sentiment.
Hopes of fiscal support, however, should ease any material impact on the EUR, however.
Through the early part of the day, risk aversion pinned the EUR pack as the markets responded to profit warnings hitting the news wires.
At the time of writing, the EUR was down by 0.06% at $1.0829.
It’s a particularly busy day ahead on the economic calendar. Key stats include December wage growth and unemployment figures, together with January’s claimant count figures.
Last month’s figures had given the Pound support, with better than expected numbers. More of the same is going to be needed to prevent a slide.
At the time of writing, the Pound was down by 0.08% to $1.2998.
It’s a relatively quiet day ahead on the economic calendar. Key stats are limited to NY Empire State Manufacturing Index numbers for February.
Expect market sensitivity to the numbers, with any weaker than forecasted figures likely to test the Dollar.
The talk has been of a resilient U.S economy. Weak numbers could question that outlook…
At the time of writing, the Dollar Spot Index was up by 0.21% to 99.206.
It’s a relatively quiet day ahead on the economic calendar, with December manufacturing sales figures due out of Canada.
While we can expect the numbers to influence later today, expect market risk sentiment and any further fiscal support chatter to be the key driver.
The Loonie was down by 0.10% at C$1.3248 against the U.S Dollar, at the time of writing.
With over 20 years of experience in the finance industry, Bob has been managing regional teams across Europe and Asia and focusing on analytics across both corporate and financial institutions. Currently he is covering developments relating to the financial markets, including currencies, commodities, alternative asset classes, and global equities.