Asian stock markets finished lower on Monday as the lockdown will extend by end of April in most countries. The death toll continues to rise across the globe with Spain reported the deadliest day on Sunday. The central bank of India cut the interest rates on Friday, while Congress approved on Friday a relief package that includes aid to companies and direct payments to households. Coronavirus confirmed cases topped 720,000 while the death toll rises to 151,000.
Nikkei 225 ended 2.79% lower at 18849; the Shanghai Composite index closed 0.80% lower at 2752. The Singapore FTSE Straits Times is 2.59% lower at 2462. Hang Seng was 0.29% lower at 23415. The ASX 200 index managed to strongly rebound and finished 7.0% higher at 5181.
European indices started the session lower. The German DAX is 1.34% lower at 9,500. CAC 40 index is 2.27% lower at 4,252, while the FTSE MIB in Milan is 2.15% lower at 16,459. In London, the FTSE 100 is 1.89% lower at 5,406.
In commodities markets, crude oil plunged to 17-year lows. WTI crude oil is 5.95% lower at $20.22 while the Brent oil is 8.11% lower at $22.91 per barrel.
The gold price is 0.41% lower at 1620. The gold initial resistance stands at $1,703 the monthly high, while the initial support stands at $1,451 the low from March 16 trading session. Silver (XAGUSD) slumps on Monday and is 3.19% lower at $13.94.
Cryptocurrencies recover today almost yesterday loses. Bitcoin (BTCUSD) price is 7.04% higher at $6,281, hitting the daily low at $5,714 and the daily high at $6,338. Bitcoin’s (BTCUSD) technical picture is bearish as the cryptocurrency trading below all the major daily moving averages. The first support for Bitcoin stands now at $4,431 the low from March 14th. On the other hand, immediate resistance stands at $6,860 previous week high while the next strong resistance will be met at 10,495 the yearly top.
Ethereum is 5.27% higher, at 131.13 with capitalization at 14.39 billion. The initial resistance for Ethereum stands at 144.05 the previous week high, while the support stands at $102.00 the low from March 16th session. Ripple – XRPUSD is 6.08% higher at 0.1725. Litecoin (LTCUSD) is 4.42% higher at 38.79. The crypto market capitalization stands now at $174.47 billion.
In the Lookout: The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) cut the seven-day reverse repo rate to 2.2% from 2.4% and injected 50 billion yuan into the banking system, via open-market operations.
The People’s Bank of China has set the Yuan reference rate at 7.0477 above Friday’s fix at 7.0427.
Trading Perspective: In the foreign exchange markets, EURUSD is 0.52% lower at 1.1074, the Australian dollar is 0.45% lower at 0.6135 against the U.S. greenback. The Yen is higher against the US Dollar, the USDJPY is 0.04% lower at 107.85. NZDUSD trades 0.50% lower at 0.6012.
USDCHF Rebounds After Previous Week Sell-Off
USDCHF trades higher today after six consecutive days of losses, as the dollar gets some bids today after the sharp sell-off the previous week, as the USD liquidity normalized after the massive intervention by the Fed and other central banks around the globe the previous week. A big hit for USD last week was the historic jump in jobless claims on Thursday. U.S. Congress passed a 2.2 trillion-dollar stimulus bill to combat the coronavirus outbreak impact.
On the economic data from Switzerland, the KOF Leading Indicator came in at 92.9, topping expectations of 81.6 in March.
On the technical side, the first resistance for the USDCHF pair stands at 0.9567 the daily top. More pressure will be met at 0.9654 the high from Friday’s session. On the downside, immediate support for USDCHF will be met at 0.9497 the daily low. If the pair moves below, the next support area stands at 0.9449 the low from March 17th trading session.
