Japanese stocks fail to join in on the risk recovery ahead of the weekend

Nikkei 14-02

The Nikkei may be sitting lower but AxJ equities are actually settling higher as we see Chinese stocks also rebound from yesterday's losses as Asian equities mostly consolidate gains ahead of the weekend amid ongoing virus concerns.

The overall risk mood in the market is a bit mixed though as we see US futures sit about 0.2% higher but Treasury yields are a little lower across the curve. 10-year yields are down by 1.5 bps to 1.60% as we look towards European trading.

As such, that is leaving currencies somewhat caught in the middle once again with USD/JPY at 109.78 - still tepid between the key hourly moving averages for now.