Forex Today: Coronavirus fears spread and weigh on markets, Aussie surges, all eyes on the ECB

Yohay Elam FXStreet

Here is what you need to know on Thursday, January 23:

Chinese authorities have shut down access links to Wuhan, the large provincial capital where the coronavirus originates from. The news, coming ahead of the Chinese Lunar New Year, is weighing on markets. USD/JPY is on the back foot, trading well below 110.

The Australian dollar is rising after the land down under reported an increase of 28,900 jobs and its Unemployment Rate fell to 5.1%. The chances that the Reserve Bank of Australia cuts rates have diminished.

The European Central Bank is set to leave its interest rate unchanged. President Christine Lagarde may reveal details of the ECB's strategic review. The bank may consider allowing inflation to run at higher levels in order to compensate for past low prices.

See ECB Preview: Glass half green or a Lagarde drag on EUR/USD? Three scenarios

The Bank of Canada sent the loonie plunging after it expressed concern about the economy and revealed that it had considered cutting rates already now. Governor Stephen Poloz sounded somewhat more optimistic, but USD/CAD continues trading above 1.31.

Brexit: Prime Minister Boris Johnson "got Brexit done" after the House of Lords gave its final seal to the UK's exit at the end of the month. Johnson remained optimistic about clinching a deal on future relations with the EU by year-end.

The pound jumped on Wednesday after the UK CBI Industrial Trends figure beat expectations with -22. The indicator rarely impacts the pound. The final word related to the Bank of England's rate cut comes on Friday with Markit's Purchasing Managers' Indexes.

The loonie was also hit with falling oil prices. WTI is trading below $55 ahead of the release of Crude Oil Inventories later on Thursday.

Cryptocurrencies are gradually retreating with Bitcoin trading below $8,500.

Author

Yohay Elam

FXStreet

Yohay is in Forex since 2008 when he founded Forex Crunch, a blog crafted in his free time that turned into a fully-fledged currency website later sold to Finixio.

EUR/USD seems fragile below 1.1700 as Middle East war boosts energy prices

The EUR/USD pair trades flat at around 1.1680 during the Asian trading session on Tuesday, but broadly seems vulnerable, being close to its five-week low. The major currency pair is under pressure as surging oil prices due to the United States-Israel war with Iran have increased the risks of higher inflation for the Old Continent.

GBP/USD hovers around 1.3400 with bearish pressure intact

GBP/USD edges higher after three days of losses, trading around 1.3400 during the Asian hours on Tuesday. The technical analysis of the daily chart indicates an ongoing bearish bias, as the pair trades within a descending channel pattern.

Gold sticks to gains above $5,350 amid sustained safe-haven demand; firmer USD caps gains

Gold sticks to its positive bias for the third straight day and trades above the $5,350 level heading into the European session on Tuesday. Concerns about a broader regional conflict in the Middle East continue to weigh on investors' sentiment and underpin demand for the traditional safe-haven bullion.

Stellar risks deeper losses as derivatives metrics turn negative

Stellar is trading red below $0.16 at the time of writing on Tuesday, after a slight recovery the previous day. Weakening derivatives data caps the recovery, while an unfavorable technical outlook projects a deeper correction for the XLM token in the upcoming days.

The market is not panicking it is repricing the probability distribution of Oil and time

At the end of the day, markets do not trade morality or geopolitics. They trade transmission channels. And the only channel that truly matters in this maelstrom runs through the price of energy and the time value of money.

Hyperliquid Price Forecast: HYPE rises on commodities demand amid US-Iran war

Hyperliquid (HYPE) steadies above $33 at press time on Tuesday, marking its fourth consecutive day of recovery in a broadly volatile market due to the ongoing US-Israel strikes on Iran.