Japan will ban the entry of non-Japanese people from the United Kingdom from Thursday following the emergence of a highly infectious new coronavirus strain, top government spokesman said on Wednesday.

Countries across the globe shut their borders to Britain on Monday due to fears about the new strain. “The government will take border control steps flexibly to prevent the spread of the coronavirus within the nation,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato told a news conference. “We request people to refrain from making short visits to the UK. “The government will ask people including long-term foreign residents to self-quarantine for 14 days upon return from Britain.

From next week, Japanese coming from Britain would be asked to submit a certificate to confirm they had tested negative for COVID-19 within 72 hours of their departure.

The greenback reacted to US President Donald Trump’s obstruction to the coronavirus (COVID-19) aid package and government funding already passed by Congress.  In his tweet, US President Trump terms the $900 billion covid aid package as “unsuitable ‘disgrace’ and urged lawmakers to make a number of changes to the measure, including bigger direct payments to individuals and families.”

On the other hand, the US Homeland Security Department issued a warning over the use of data linked from Chinese companies. Axios said, “to warn US companies of the risk of Chinese government-sponsored data theft that can occur through US business partnerships with Chinese companies, or through the use of their products and services.”

Apart from that fading chances of an early US stimulus, conversation over more stringent activity restrictions in the UK, due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) and the virus variant, joins the Brexit woes and US President Donald Trump’s pardoning of 15 people, also increases the risks.

USD/JPY 4 Hour Chart:

Support: 103.35 (S1), 103.08 (S2), 102.89 (S3).

Resistance: 103.81 (R1), 104.00 (R2), 104.27 (R3).

Amidst all the catalysts weighing on the greenback, we expect a bearish trend for USD/JPY.