recession

Asian Stocks Slumped, Nikkei Positive, USD Outperforms 

global stocks slumps
Asian stocks slump

Asian stocks slump on Monday, mostly higher as investors fear that the monetary and fiscal measures will fail to combat the deep recession due to the coronavirus outbreak. The previous week, Bank of Canada, the Bank of Japan, the Bank of England, the European Central Bank, the Fed, and the Swiss National Bank said they would be using standing U.S. dollar liquidity swap line arrangements.

The major central banks agreed to increase the frequency of 7-day maturity operations from weekly to daily. These operations starting today and will continue through the end of April.

Coronavirus confirmed cases top 300,000 while the death toll rises to 14,000, according to John Hopkins University. Meanwhile, many countries extend the lockout in an attempt to contain the outbreak. 

Nikkei 225 finished 2.02 higher at 16887; the Shanghai Composite index closed 3.11% lower at 2660. The Singapore FTSE Straits Times is 7.89% lower at 2220. Hang Seng in Hong Kong was 4.90% lower at 21688. The ASX 200 index managed sank for one more day, ended 5.6% lower at 4564.

European indices turn negative after a positive start. The German DAX is 1.13% lower at 8,314. CAC 40 index is 1.43% lower at 3,698, while the FTSE MIB in Milan is 1.45% lower at 15,334. In London, the FTSE 100 is 2.20% lower at 4,968.  

In commodities markets, crude oil price seesaws around the unchanged level after Friday’s sharp drop. WTI crude oil is 0.13% lower at $22.58, while the Brent oil is 6.08% lower at $25.531 per barrel. 

The gold price is 0.66% lower at 1488. The gold price immediate resistance stands at $1,703 the March high, while the support stands at $1,451 the low from March 16 trading session. Silver price is also under selling pressure, giving up 0.95% at $12.42.    

Cryptocurrencies continue the consolidation phase after the recent rally. Bitcoin (BTCUSD) is 0.77% higher at $5,869, hitting the daily low at $5,658 and the daily high at $6,022. Bitcoin’s technical outlook is negative as the cryptocurrency trading below all the major daily moving averages. Initial support for BTCUSD stands now at $4,431, the low from March 14. On the other side, first resistance stands at $6,909 Sunday’s high. The critical resistance will be met at 10,495, the yearly top.

Ethereum is 0.80% higher at 123.45, with capitalization at 13.70 billion. The first resistance for Ethereum stands at $142.49, the previous high, while the first support stands at $102.00, the low from March 16. Ripple is 1.47% higher at 0.1499. Litecoin (LTCUSD) is 2.91% higher at 36.48. The crypto market capitalization stands now at $165.30 billion.

In the Lookout: The Hong Kong SAR Consumer Price Index came in at 2.2% below expectations of 3.1% in February. The Singapore Consumer Price Index came in at 0.3 below the expectations of 0.7 in February.

The Turkey Consumer Confidence rose to 58.2 in March from the previous 57.3.

The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) set the Yuan reference rate at 7.0940 lower than Friday’s fix at 7.1052.

USDJPY Daily Chart
USDJPY Daily Chart

Trading Perspective: In the foreign exchange markets, the Australian dollar is 0.63% lower at 0.5771 against the U.S. greenback. The Japanese Yen is higher against the U.S. Dollar, and the USDJPY is 0.48% lower at 110.22. The U.S. dollar index is 0.21% lower at 103.27. NZDUSD trades 1.12% lower at 0.56450.

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