The week looks like it is starting on the back foot in Asia as safe-havens have seen a strong bid.

Much of the news at the moment is surrounding the outbreak of coronavirus in China, which is starting to worry global markets.

Chinese futures markets on other exchanges are down sharply while Australian markets are actually away currently for Australia day.

In the key markets at the moment, we can see the GOLD has opened the week higher, while other key risk assets such as WTI are falling.

The USD/JPY is falling on the back of JPY buying, so all the hallmarks of a flight to safety are already in place.

So far there are reports that nearly 3000 people have been infected by the virus while there are 80 people confirmed to have died so far.

So far today, the NZD/USD is the weakest forex pair in Asia, down -0.34% while the AUD/USD is not all that far behind.

Gold is probably going to be the one to watch this morning to see how sentiment goes over the course of the day.

We can see that Gold jumped early but is off the highs a touch on light volume.

The thing to consider is that we do see this type of price action a fair bit in Asia. After a weekend break, we often come back and walk into a risk-off mood.

However, over the course of Europe and the US, that fears dissipate and then by the end of the day markets have turned around.

Equity traders, of course, like to use these types of trades to buy the dip, so that will be something to watch when US traders wake up.