By Alex Ho
Investing.com - The safe-haven Japanese yen was little changed against the U.S. dollar on Monday in Asia despite concerns that global coronavirus spread are worsening.
An outbreak of cases outside of China has recently gained the market’s attention. Italy, South Korea and Iran posted sharp rises in infections over the weekend. South Korea, which reported 160 new cases today, now has more than 760 cases, while Italy reported more than 150 and Iran 43 cases.
Asian equities traded mostly lower today, with South Korean stocks slumping more than 3%. However, the Japanese yen, which usually moves in directions opposite to other risk assets, were not able to benefit from the worsening investor sentiment today.
The USD/JPY pair last traded at 111.53 by 11:30 PM ET (03:30 GMT), down 0.02%.
Meanwhile, the U.S. dollar index that tracks the greenback against a basket of other currencies climbed 0.3% to 99.485.
Investors will be on the lookout for any comments from U.S. Federal Reserve officials on the virus impact this week. Fed Reserve Vice Chairman Richard Clarida will speak at an economic policy conference in Washington on Tuesday, while Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari and Dallas Fed President Robert Kaplan will also make appearances in the coming days.
On the data front, a report on U.S. consumer confidence is due on Tuesday, while durable goods orders data is scheduled to be released on Thursday.
The EUR/USD pair lost 0.2% to 1.0819. European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde is due to deliver remarks at an event in Germany on Wednesday
The AUD/USD pair and NZD/USD pair both dropped 0.3% as a blow to the market’s risk appetite continued to weigh on the two currency pairs.
The USD/CNY pair inched up 0.1% to 7.0310.