- The Bank of Japan announced another tranche of unscheduled bond purchases, offering to buy an unlimited amount of 2-year notes at a positive yield of 0.03%. This caused the Japanese Yen to strengthen.
- Stock markets are mostly lower as the USA joins several other countries in requiring covid testing on arrivals from China. A flight arriving from China to Italy was tested and more than half the passengers were found to be positive, fanning fears that the seemingly massive contagion in China could spill over into another global wave.
- The long-term bullish trend in precious metals continues. Both Gold and Silver are attractive to long-term trend traders in the long direction right now, as higher prices here are likely over the coming days.
- In the Forex market, the New Zealand Dollar and the Japanese Yen are the strongest major currencies, while the Swiss Franc and the US Dollar are the weakest right now. The EUR/USD currency pair is in a notable long-term bullish trend, and trend traders will be looking to be long here as this pair historically trends reliably, so higher prices are likely over the coming days.
- Daily new global coronavirus cases fell last week for the first time in two months.
- It is estimated that 69.1% of the world’s population has received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccination.
- Total confirmed new coronavirus cases worldwide stand at over 663.3 million with an average case fatality rate of 1.01%.
- The rate of new coronavirus infections appears to now be significantly increasing only in China, Japan, Peru, and Taiwan. There is concern that the spread in China is currently extremely rapid, with the USA now imposing restrictions on new arrivals from China along with other countries.
Forex Today: Yen Strengthens as BoJ Buys Bonds
Adam Lemon
The Forex market is dominated by a firm rally by the Japanese Yen, as the Bank of Japan conducts unscheduled bond purchases in the market.