The United States dollar is finally showing some strengthening signs against the Japanese yen this Friday, following what can be considered a wave of calmness among traders, after an entire week of concerns around the new Coronavirus in China.
In contrast, the euro has shown its weakness, following the European Central Bank’s indications of no immediate movement from its current monetary policy stance, during this Thursday’s meeting.
According to Bloomberg, president Christine Lagarde insisted that there’s no such thing as the bank being on autopilot, despite others remaining skeptical.
“As long as the economy rebounds as expected, with a stimulus already in the pipeline, the ECB will likely hold off any major policy adjustments until it has completed its policy review,” said Holger Schmieding, Berenberg Bank chief economist.
WHO makes an appeal to calm
For the moment, the number of cases of patients infected with Coronavirus has reached 830 in China, while the death toll from the same cause is at 25, according to the National Health Commission.
However, on Friday night, the World Health Organization doesn’t consider the virus a global health emergency anymore, which worked as an aid for the United States dollar, as it tended to go higher.
“Make no mistake, this is an emergency in China, but it has not yet become a global health emergency”, said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO’s director-general.
On Friday, by 07:50 GMT, the dollar managed to climb 0.1% against the Japanese yen, with the USD/JPY trading at 109.54. As for the US Dollar Index Futures, it reached 97.53, as it also edged up by 0.1%.
The euro doesn’t need any help
The comments made by the ECB president don’t imply any potential increased reservations towards using the tools the European Central Bank has at its disposal.
“If downside growth risks increase again in the coming months, as we expect, the market should not have any problems pricing in a higher risk of further stimulus measures,” Schmieding added.
At 07:50 GMT, EUR/USD was trading 0.1% lower at 1.1048, while against the GBP, the euro went down 0.1%, at 0.8417.
