A clearly defensive feel has taken hold at....>

FOREX: A clearly defensive feel has taken hold at the start to the week, as

concerns over the resurgence of the novel coronavirus linger. A number of U.S.

states have seen a pick up in case counts recently, while Beijing locked down

several districts after detecting a new cluster of infections.

- AUD leads commodity FX lower and underperforms in G10 FX space. Escalating

Sino-Australian tensions are adding pressure to the Aussie, with a Global Times'

article suggesting that China might eventually restrict Australian iron ore

exports, if bilateral relations continue to deteriorate.

- A flight to safety has created demand for safe havens. USD/JPY inched higher

initially, but shed gains thereafter and the yen now sits atop the G10 pile.

- USD/KRW picked up a bid and attacked Friday's best levels, amid wider risk

aversion & the weekend's portion of sabre-rattling from North Korea.

- USD/CNH has moved higher, supported by the aforementioned risk-off mix & ahead

of the data dump due out of China at the bottom of the hour.

- China's monthly economic activity indicators, U.S. Empire M'fing, EZ trade

balance, as well as comments from Fed's Daly & Kaplan and Riksbank's Breman.