USD/JPY tumbled past the Y110.00 mark....>

DOLLAR-YEN: USD/JPY tumbled past the Y110.00 mark & the 50-DMA Thursday as

spreading Covid-19 epidemic kept appetite for safe havens alive and well.

Uninspiring address from U.S. Pres Trump & the first virus case of unknown

origin declared by the U.S. kick-started renewed flight to safety. In addition,

the greenback was dented by speculation that the FOMC might opt to trim rates

this year. USD/JPY recovered through the WMR fix but then dropped again as U.S.

equity benchmarks sold off sharply, closing in correction territory.

- The rate trades flat at Y109.61 despite falling as low as to Y109.34 earlier

in the session. Bears look for a drop below the 38.2% retracement of the Aug 26

- Feb 20 rally/100-DMA at Y109.26/24 before targeting the 200-DMA at Y108.42.

Bulls need to retake the 50-DMA at Y109.61 before setting their sights on the

Jan 17 top at Y110.29.

- Today's Japanese data dump includes industrial output, unemployment, retail

sales & Tokyo CPI. It gets underway at the bottom of the hour.