The latest updates in global currencies markets under the Corona virus – 21 March 2020
The global death toll from the corona – virus has now exceeded 11,000. According to the latest reports from WHO. Travel restrictions continue everywhere…
The US state of California has announced a widespread closure. Although most US states have not implemented such sweeping policies. Leaving the virus with the potential to continue to spread throughout the country. There have been more than 200 deaths in the United States and nearly 15,000 injuries have been reported
Analysts: the recession has already begun!
Economists polled by Reuters believed that the global recession had already begun, reports released on Friday revealed. The COVID-19 virus that has spread worldwide has sparked some of the deepest emergency stimulus measures in history. And measures have been implemented around the world. The markets were selling in a panic. Which has caused the stock prices to drop wildly!!! And gold and bond prices fluctuated to new lows. 31 of the 41 economists surveyed by Reuters commented that the past decade of expansion was over.
Bank of America analysts joined the announcement, sending a note to clients on Thursday stating, “We are officially announcing that the economy has entered a recession … joining the rest of the world, which is a deep downturn … there will be job losses. Wealth will be destroyed and confidence in investment will decrease dramatically if we don’t get this under control.”
The US dollar faces a new struggle in the Asian session
The US dollar advanced in recent days, but faced significant losses during Friday’s Asian trading session. The dollar fell against the yen by 0.732% to 109.88.
Erases its slight losses and turns higher again!
The dollar rose against most of the major currencies during Friday’s trading eliminating the slight losses recorded earlier in the day (in the Asian session.)
Today, the Federal Reserve announced the expansion of its program to exchange the US dollar with a number of international central banks in Japan, Switzerland, England, the Eurozone and Canada.
The central bank indicated that it intends to provide a trillion dollars a in liquidity in the financial markets through “repo” operations, and also intends to expand its program to purchase assets to include local government bonds, known as municipal bonds.
The number of people infected by the “Corona” virus worldwide exceeded 250,000, while more than 11 other cases died.
Pessimism returned to the markets after the remarks of US President “Donald Trump,” which denied that the United States reached any treatment for the “Corona” virus.
In terms of trading, the dollar index (against a number of major currencies) rose 0.1% to 102.9 points, and recorded the highest level at 102.9 points and the lowest level at 101.09 points.
Sterling (GBP) rises, supported by Johnson’s measures to contain Corona
The pound rose against most major currencies during Friday’s trading, supported by the intensive measures taken by the government of the British Prime Minister “Boris Johnson” to contain the virus “Corona.”
Johnson announced today in his daily press conference that he has ordered the closure of all cafes, restaurants and bars in the capital, London, until further notice. Johnson also ordered the closure of all shops and stores operating in the capital except food stores and pharmacies.
This comes in light of the widespread outbreak of the deadly corona virus in a number of European countries, especially Italy and Spain. Johnson advised citizens to stay indoors and only go out of necessity to avoid getting sick.
In terms of trading, the GBP rose against the USD by 0.8% to 1.1581, and recorded the highest level today at 1.1929 and the lowest level at 1.1412
The euro from its lowest in three years against the US dollar in the last sessions of the week
On Friday, by the economies of the euro zone and the US economy, the largest economy in the world, and in light of the growing fears of the spread of the global epidemic of the Corona virus, and the assessment of investors to stimulate global response to the corona’s followers on the global economy.
EUR pair rose against the US dollar by 0.69% to 1.0766 levels compared to the opening levels at 1.0691 after the pair achieved its highest level during the trading session at 1.0769, while achieving the lowest in three years at 1.0653.
Investors are looking forward to the largest euro area economies, Germany, to disclose inflation data with the release of the producer price index, which is an initial indication of inflationary pressures. Which may show a 0.2% contraction against a growth of 0.8% last January. While the annual reading of the same index may clarify Growth stability at 0.2%, and that comes before we witness about the euro zone economies as a whole the seasonally adjusted reading of the current account index that may reflect the contraction of the surplus to 30.3 billion euros compared to 32.6 billion euros last December.
This comes hours after the European Central Bank announced on Wednesday an epidemic emergency program to buy securities and help support the economies of the euro area at a value of 750 billion euros ($ 821 billion), stressing that “it will ensure that all sectors of the economy can benefit from the supportive financing conditions that enable them to Absorb this shock “and that” it applies equally to families, companies, banks and governments and that he will do whatever is necessary within the limits of his mandate.”
