Asian session review: the US dollar rose against the Euro and the yen

During today's Asian trading, the us dollar strengthened against most of the world's major currencies amid the spread of the coronavirus outside of China.

The Chinese yuan fell in price on the background of monetary policy easing by the People's Bank of China. The Central Bank lowered the annual base rate (loan prime rate, LPR) to 4.05% from 4.15% per annum, but analysts doubt the adequacy of such easing.

"There is a sense that the decline in LPR is not sufficient to contain the slowdown in economic growth caused by the spread of the coronavirus," said Chan Wei Liang, an analyst at DBS Bank in Singapore.

According to the Hong Kong newspaper South China Morning Post, the number of people infected with the Covid-9 coronavirus in the world, except for the mainland of China, increased by 137 over the past day and amounted to 1,149 thousand people. At the same time, the number of victims of the coronavirus has doubled from 5 to 10 people: three people died in Japan, including two from the Diamond Princess cruise ship, two deaths were recorded in Hong Kong and Iran, and one in France, Taiwan and the Philippines.

"Uncertainty is growing and the dollar is strengthening," said currency analyst at Sony Financial Holdings Inc. Kumiko Ishikawa. "What is important is that the fundamentals of the American economy are the strongest among other developed economies and, in addition, the spread of the coronavirus is likely to have more serious consequences for Asian countries."