PBOC Official: Coronavirus outbreak has impact on firms' ability to repay bonds but overall effect not huge

Dhwani Mehta FXStreet

The coronavirus outbreak has an impact on firms' ability to repay bonds but the overall effect is not huge, an official at the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) said on Monday.

He added that he still expects bond default risks to decline overall this year.

Meanwhile, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said that they are not considering issuing travel advisories for countries such as South Korea and Japan that are reporting an increase in coronavirus cases.

Separately, Afghanistan Health Minister announced the first confirmed case of coronavirus while French Junior Transport Minister said that he sees no need to close France/Italy borders amid growing virus contagion risks.

Coronavirus update: Wuhan pull backs earlier announcement on easing lockdown, risk-off at full steam

Author

Dhwani Mehta

FXStreet

Residing in Mumbai (India), Dhwani is a Senior Analyst and Manager of the Asian session at FXStreet. She has over 10 years of experience in analyzing and covering the global financial markets, with specialization in Forex and commodities markets.

EUR/USD slumps below 1.1750 as USD benefits from risk-aversion

EUR/USD comes under renewed bearish pressure in the European session and trades below 1.1750 following a recovery attempt earlier in the day. The US Dollar gathers strength and weighs on the pair as investors seek refuge in the wake of Israel and the United States' joint attack on Iran.

GBP/USD targets 1.3500 barrier near moving averages

GBP/USD rebounds from the daily losses, trading around 1.3450 during the Asian hours on Monday. The technical analysis of the daily chart indicates an ongoing bearish bias, as the pair trades within a descending channel pattern.

Gold surges on safe-haven demand, closes in on $5,400

Gold benefits from intense risk-aversion on Monday and climbs toward $5,400, setting a fresh monthly-high in the process. Tensions in the Middle East remain high as Israel and Hezbollah continue to exchange strikes following the US-Israel joint attack on Iran over the weekend.

Bitcoin, Ethereum and Ripple under pressure as key supports face breakdown risk

Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Ripple prices trade on the back foot at the start of this week on Monday, after extending losses in the previous week. BTC is on the brink of a breakdown, ETH is capped below key resistance, and XRP risks a crack of the trendline.

The market is paying for insurance, not apocalypse

As expected, this morning felt less like a Monday market open and more like a fire drill. Futures screens flickered red. S&P contracts down almost 1%. Nasdaq off 1.2%. Brent leaped 13% through $80. Gold rose 1.6% toward $5350 before paring some gains. The dollar is strutting mildly. The Swiss franc is quietly doing what it always does in a storm, catching some safe-haven flows.

Starknet unveils strkBTC, shielded Bitcoin transactions on Ethereum Layer 2

Starknet, the Ethereum Layer 2 network developed by StarkWare, today announced strkBTC, a wrapped Bitcoin asset that introduces optional shielding while preserving full DeFi composability.