US 10-year treasury yields near historic low under 0.90%, Japan’s NIKKEI drops 2%

• Risk aversion continues to accelerate with coronavirus headlines.
• Fed policymakers try to divert traders off another rate cut in March but fail amid COVID-19 pessimism at home.
• Japanese FinMin Aso wards off the need for any further G7 steps but stays ready in case of an emergency.

With the growing risk of coronavirus (COVID-19) taking a toll on the market’s risk sentiment, traders rush to the US bonds while avoiding riskier assets like stocks. That said, the US 10-year treasury yields slip 4.5 basis points (bps) to 0.876%, near the previous day’s record low of 0.873%, whereas Japan’s NIKKEI drops more than 2.0% to 20,897 by the press time of early Friday.

Not only the rising death toll in the US but the increasing number of cases in South Korea, Italy and the UK also exert pressure on the global policymakers to launch another fight against the deadly virus.

Recently, the US Vice President Mike Pence crossed wires while confirming the lack of testing kits whereas news of increasing death toll and emergencies have earlier weighed on the US dollar to test fresh two-month low.

However, the Dallas Fed President Robert Kaplan keeps limiting the signals of another rate cut from the US Federal Reserve on its March 18 meeting. “ Markets are pricing around an 85% chance of a 50bp cut at the next FOMC meeting on 18 March, and a terminal rate of 0.27% (vs Fed’s mid-rate at 1.13% and effective FFR 1.09% currently),” said Westpac.

Also joining the line to avoid any further actions from the Group of Seven (G7) countries was Japan’s Finance Minister Taro Aso.

Traders will now keep eyes on the COVID-19 headlines ahead of the US employment data for near-term direction.