The news that U.S. President Donald Trump’s positive test for COVID-19 alarmed traders at the end of the week. The USD held onto its previous gains along with the safe-haven Japanese yen.

President Donald Trump tweeted to confirm that he had tested positive for the coronavirus, contracting it from one of his advisers who had accompanied him to the debate on Tuesday and to the Minnesota rally on Wednesday. First lady Melania Trump also tested positive. “Tonight, @FLOTUS and I tested positive for COVID-19. We will begin our quarantine and recovery process immediately. We will get through this TOGETHER!” Trump tweeted. 

“The president of the United States has got a disease which kills people. People are de-risking because of that,” experts said. 

Ahead of the meeting between Britain’s David Frost and the European Union’s Michel Barnier, the British Sterling increased 0.4% versus the euro at 90.78 pence, and at 1.2914 against the U.S. dollar. “This meeting is what sterling longs needed,” strategist Jordan Rochester stated.

“With each (Brexit news) headline you get sucked into put trades on and within minutes a denial comes in and it turns either way.”

The Japanese yen reached a one-week high of 104.95 – the biggest increase in over a month. 

The fall in oil prices also impacted the Russian rouble, South African rand and the Australian dollar.