Coronavirus - China National Health Commission press briefing at 0200GMT

Coronavirus - China National Health Commission will hold a press briefing at 0200GMT.

The risk-off environment surrounding this is fragile. At the start of the week, gold and yen were performing on the bid as a result of reports where the virus had spread to hundreds of people on China. now, there are reports of the virus in several countries around the world. 

More on that here: 

• Wuhancorona virus is likely to be mutated - The Global Times

Market implications

When looking back, when comparing to the last human chain of SARS transmission in the first outbreak (from November 2002 to July 2003), it was successfully disrupted on 5 July 2003 owing to global cooperation, the international spread of SARS coronavirus (SARS-CoV). It had resulted in 8,098 SARS cases in 26 countries, with 774 deaths.  Over the same period, USD/JPY rallied, March 2003-July from 116.32-120.63, (May lows were 115.09). It then dropped in August from 120-103 Dec business of the same year. The Japanese fiscal year-ends March 31st so the yen is usually stronger seasonally around then as the flows from Japanese exporters buying at the end of their financial year.