By Alex Ho
Investing.com – The Chinese yuan inched up on Wednesday in Asia even after the World Health Organization (WHO) reiterated that the new virus could be contained.
The USD/CNY pair slipped 0.1% to 7.0045 by 12:32 AM ET (04:32 GMT).
The coronavirus outbreak remained in focus as the mainland China death toll increased to 490, while confirmed cases rose to 24,324, Chinese authorities reported today.
Despite the increasing death toll, the WHO expressed confidence that the virus spread could be contained, as it pointed out 99% of the cases are in China so far.
Beijing has injected around 1.7 trillion yuan ($243 billion) into the financial system as an attempt to support its economy. More airlines and countries issued travel restrictions on China this week, while factories lie idle and shops remain closed.
Last week, a Chinese government economist said that the country’s first-quarter economic growth may drop to 5% or even lower due to the virus outbreak, Reuters reported, citing a local magazine.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Dollar Index that tracks the greenback against a basket of other currencies inched up 0.1% to 97.860.
The greenback rose slightly overnight after data showed factory goods orders rose 1.8% in December, topping economists' forecasts for a 1.2% rise, marking the largest gain since August 2018.
The NZD/USD pair slipped 0.1% to 0.6483 after gaining overnight. New Zealand released quarterly employment numbers that showed unemployment numbers dipped to 4.0% in the fourth quarter, down from 4.1% in the previous one and beating expectations of a worsening to 4.2%.
The AUD/USD pair was little changed at 0.6736.
The GBP/USD pair slid 0.1% to 1.3018.