The safe haven currency Japanese yen is trading bearish against the US dollar on Thursday after China confirmed a continued reduction in the number of infected cases and the number of dead from the coronavirus outbreak. At the time of writing, USD/JPY is trading around 111.37.

China confirmed that only 349 cases of coronavirus were reported from Hubei while the death toll climbed lower to 108, giving rise to hopes that the outbreak may be on its way towards getting contained. The market sentiment received an additional boost earlier today after China’s central bank, PBOC, cut its benchmark lending rate by 0.10% to support businesses and offset economic damage from the coronavirus.

On Wednesday, the Japanese yen lost as much as 1.3% of its value, the steepest fall seen since August 2019. This was triggered more by stop loss orders getting triggered after traders’ options expired and had USD/JPY trading in a tight range in the previous session.

There is also a slight improvement in market sentiment after China restarted some of its manufacturing activity and attempts to return to normalcy after imposing lockdown measures for several weeks in a bid to contain the outbreak.