USD/JPY depressed near 6-month lows, below 106.00 mark amid coronavirus outbreak concerns

The USD/JPY pair lost some additional ground on the last day of the week and tumbled to over six-month lows, below the 106.00 round-figure mark during the Asian session.

The pair added to its recent heavy losses and remained under some heavy selling pressure for the second consecutive session on Friday. The downfall marked the pair's third day of a negative move in the previous four – also the fifth in the last seven – and was sponsored by the coronavirus-led selloff across the global equity markets.

Bears remained in control

Growing market concerns that the virus outbreak will have a bigger than previously estimated impact on the global economy weighed in investors' sentiment. The nervousness was evident from a fresh wave of risk-aversion trade, which provided a strong boost to the Japanese yen's safe-haven status and kept exerting pressure on the major.

Apart from the global flight to safety, firming market expectations that the Fed will again have to cut interest rates by 50 bps for the second time this month resulted into a plunge in the US Treasury bond yields. This eventually aggravated the prevailing bearish pressure surrounding the US dollar and further collaborated to the pair's downfall.

The bearish trajectory seemed rather unaffected by extremely oversold conditions on short-term charts, which might now turn out to be the only factor that might help limit deeper losses, at least for the time being. Market participants now look forward to the closely watched US monthly jobs report for an immediate respite for the USD bulls.

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