· China says virus ability to spread getting stronger
The coronavirus transmission ability is getting stronger and infections could continue to rise, China’s National Health Commission said on Sunday, with more than 2,000 people globally infected and 56 in China killed by the disease.
National Health Commission Minister Ma Xiaowei, speaking at a press briefing, said authorities’ knowledge of the new virus was limited and they are unclear on the risks posed by mutations of the virus.
Ma said the incubation period for the coronavirus can range from one to 14 days, and that the virus is infectious during incubation, which was not the case with Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), a coronavirus that originated in China and killed nearly 800 people globally in 2002 and 2003.
The virus originated in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in Hubei late last year and has spread to Chinese cities including Beijing and Shanghai, as well as the United States, Thailand, South Korea, Japan, Australia, France and Canada.
· World Health Organization chief to meet Chinese officials in Beijing as coronavirus deaths rise
Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the World Health Organization’s director general, is traveling to Beijing, China, to meet with government and health officials on the Wuhan coronavirus outbreak.
The WHO has so far declined to declare the dangerous respiratory disease a global health emergency, despite the spread of the infection from China to at least 10 other countries and the increasing death toll.
The virus has infected 2,116 people and killed 56. Cases have been identified in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore, Nepal, France, Australia, the U.S. and Canada.
· China's death toll from coronavirus rises to 80: government statement
China’s death toll from the coronavirus discovered at the end of last year has risen to 80 and the total number of confirmed cases has risen to 2,744 cases as of Jan. 26, the national health commission said in a statement on its website.
· Hong Kong bans entry of visitors from China virus province
Residents of China’s Hubei province, where the new coronavirus outbreak was first reported, will be banned from entering Hong Kong from Monday as China tries to halt the rapid spread of the outbreak.
China’s Cabinet also announced it will extend the week-long Lunar New Year holiday by three days to Feb. 2 and schools will return from their break later than usual, state broadcaster CCTV said.
· Five people in the United States, all of whom recently traveled from Wuhan, China, have been diagnosed with the new coronavirus, officials of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Sunday.
The count includes new patients identified over the weekend in the Los Angeles and Phoenix areas, as well as cases reported earlier in Chicago and Seattle.
Another 25 people have tested negative for the illness, but at least 100 more possible cases are being investigated, Nancy Messonnier, director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said in a conference call with reporters.
She said to expect more cases to be reported in the United States in coming days.
· Dollar dips vs yen as investors reach for safe havens on virus scare
The U.S. dollar slipped against the safe-haven Japanese yen on Friday as investors fretted over concerns that a spreading virus from China would curb travel and hurt economic demand.
Against the yen, which tends to draw investors during times of geopolitical or financial stress given Japan’s status as the world’s largest creditor, the dollar was 0.22% lower at 109.24 yen.
The dollar’s appeal as a safe haven helped boost it near an eight-week high against the euro on Friday. The move was aided by lukewarm European PMI data that added to the broader market conviction that European central bank policymakers will maintain a loose monetary policy for the near future.
Euro zone business activity remained lackluster with the IHS Markit’s Euro Zone Composite Flash Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI), seen as a good gauge of economic health, holding at 50.9 in January but missing the median prediction in a Reuters poll for 51.2.
That followed an earlier PMI from Germany, Europe’s largest economy, which showed the private sector gained momentum.
The euro was 0.23% lower against the greenback at $1.1027.
Sterling retreated on Friday, after initially strengthening, as some investors still expected an interest rate cut next week even though business surveys pointed to a post-election bounce in Britain’s economy. The pound was 0.33% lower against the greenback.
· Yen jumps, yuan slumps on worries China struggling to contain virus on Monday
The yen rose and the yuan fell in offshore trade on Monday as worries that China is struggling to contain the spread of a pneumonia-like virus sparked a bout of risk aversion.
The yen JPY=EBS rose 0.3% to 108.91 per dollar on Monday, reaching its strongest level since Jan. 8.
Health authorities around the world are racing to prevent a pandemic of the virus, which has infected more than 2,000 people in China and killed 76.
In the offshore market, the yuan CNH=D3 fell more than 0.3% to 6.9625 against the dollar, its weakest since Jan 8.
The dollar index .DXY against a basket of six major currencies was little changed at 97.884.
Traders said market moves could be exaggerated due to low liquidity, because financial markets in China, Hong Kong, and Australia are closed for holidays.
· Brent logs worst weekly loss in a year as China virus fears swell
Crude prices sank more than 2% on Friday and Brent logged its biggest weekly decline in more than a year as concerns that a coronavirus will spread farther in China, the world’s second-largest oil consumer, curbing travel and oil demand.
Brent crude LCOc1 settled at $60.69 a barrel, down $1.35, or 2.2%. The global benchmark fell 6.4% this week, its biggest weekly loss since Dec. 21, 2018.
U.S. crude futures CLc1 ended at $54.19 a barrel, shedding $1.4, or 2.5% on Friday and clocking a 7.4% weekly decline, their largest since July 19.
· The impeachment trial of Donald Trump resumes on Monday with the president’s defence team’s main presentations in the US Senate. Here’s what’s coming up:
Friday: The debate on witnesses could begin or continue today, followed by the crucial vote on that topic.
Saturday: If the Senate votes to hear new witnesses and evidence then the trial will go on for much longer. If, more likely, Democrats lose that vote, expect closing deliberations and a final, monumental, vote on whether to remove Donald Trump from office or acquit him of the charges some time Monday (the date of the Iowa caucuses) or Tuesday (when Trump has expressed the hope to be in the clear in time for his State of the Union address that night).
· The United States will not lift sanctions on Iran in order to negotiate, U.S. President Donald Trump tweeted late on Saturday, seemingly in response to a Der Spiegel interview with Iran’s foreign minister.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif responded on Sunday by tweeting an excerpt from the interview with Der Spiegel published on Friday, where he said Iran is still open to negotiations with America if sanctions are lifted.
· British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is mulling to use the threat of high tariffs to raise pressure on the European Union, the United States and other nations to strike trade deals with Britain, The Times newspaper reported on Saturday.
Johnson and his cabinet ministers discussed using tariffs as “leverage” in an effort to accelerate trade talks at a meeting this week which could result in taxes of 30% on some types of French cheese and 10% on German cars, the newspaper reported.
In an EU exit strategy committee meeting held on Thursday, ministers agreed that the tariffs should be put out for consultation, according to the report.
Ministers also agreed to prioritize Japan, U.S., Australia and New Zealand as “tier one” countries in negotiations and other countries as “tier two”, the newspaper added.
Reference: CNBC, Reuters, The Times
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