Covid-19 yet again dominated overnight news...>

FOREX: Covid-19 yet again dominated overnight news flow. China's daily update on

case count & death toll remained in focus. A slight moderation in case count

growth coupled with continued recovery of infected patients was weighed against

South Korea's confirmation of 15 new cases. Mild risk-on flows were observed in

G10 FX space. USD/JPY broke above the Y110.00 mark as safe havens underperformed

& high-betas firmed up. RBNZ Gov Orr offered little new in his latest address,

but the upbeat overtones in his testimony may have helped NZD a little.

- In Asia, the PBoC fix topped estimates as China set its USD/CNY mid-point

above CNY7.0 for the first time this year. The yuan took a hit but trimmed

losses later on. KRW softened on the back of new Covid-19 cases being confirmed

in South Korea, but recovered as FinMin Hong talked up the gov't's plans to

deploy fiscal stimulus and shore up the economy, rattled by the epidemic.

- Data highlights today include inflation data from the UK (CPI, PPI & RPI),

U.S. (PPI), Canada (CPI), and Sweden (CPI). U.S. housing starts/building permits

& Fed meeting minutes are also on the radar. Central bank speaker slate features

Fed's Bostic, Mester, Kashkari, Kaplan & Barkin.