Moderna CEO Weighs On Risk

An FT interview with the CEO of Moderna generated a defensive round of flows as we moved towards European trade, as he “predicted that existing vaccines will be much less effective at tackling Omicron than earlier strains of Covid-19 and warned it would take months before pharmaceutical companies can manufacture new variant-specific jabs at scale.”

• This allowed the JPY to move to the top of the G10 FX table after some early underperformance (which was being pared ahead of the release of the interview), while the commodity-linked currencies gave way, falling to the bottom of the G10 board.
• USD/JPY hovers just above Y113.00 and Monday’s low (Y112.99) as a result.
• EUR/USD traded above $1.1300 on the news, after an earlier failed test of the figure.
• JPY, AUD & NZD ignored local data releases.
• Stronger than expected official Chinese PMI data and a cautious round of rhetoric from Fed Chair Powell during the NY/Asia crossover (owing to Omicron) provided a couple of boosts to the broader risk asset sphere throughout the session, but the moves were timid and have been dominated by the aforementioned caution from the Moderna CEO.
• Flash Eurozone CPI data, the latest MNI Chicago PMI reading from the U.S. & Canadian GDP headline the remainder of Tuesday’s economic docket. Elsewhere, comments from Fed Chair Powell & U.S. Tsy Sec. Yellen on the Hill, as well as ECB speak from Villeroy & de Cos, will garner attention.