FOREX-Dollar slides after Trump bans travel from Europe to fight virus

* Trump announcement rattles markets
* Dollar falls 1% vs yen, 0.5% vs euro
* ECB awaited 1230 GMT
* Graphic: World FX rates in 2020 https://tmsnrt.rs/2RBWI5E

By Tom Westbrook
SINGAPORE, March 12 (Reuters) - The dollar careened against
the euro and yen on Thursday after U.S. President Donald Trump
rattled markets with a month-long ban on European travel to the
United States.
The dollar fell 1% to 103.32 yen JPY= and 0.5% to $1.1328
against the euro EUR= . The safe haven Swiss franc CHF= rose
0.6%. The Australian dollar AUD=D3 fell 0.4% to $0.6580.
Trump on Wednesday suspended all travel from Europe to the
United States for 30 days starting on Friday in order to fight
the coronavirus. In a televised address to the nation, he said the
restrictions applied to all of Europe, excluding the United
Kingdom. Trade would not be affected by the curb.
"Already we know the economic impact is significant, and
with this additional measure on top it's just going to multiply
the impact across businesses," said Khoon Goh, head of Asia
research at ANZ in Singapore.
"This is something that markets had not factored in...it's a
huge near-term economic cost."
The U.S. move comes on top of a string of increasingly dire
news on the coronavirus that has ended the longest bull run in
U.S. stockmarket history and sent world markets into turmoil.
MKTS/GLOB
The World Health Organization overnight described the
outbreak as a pandemic. Italy, where deaths rose by nearly a
third overnight, has shuttered all shops except supermarkets,
food stores and pharmacies. Australia on Wednesday announced an $11.4 billion stimulus
package including wage subsidies and cash payments to small
businesses. Investors are also waiting to see how agressively the
European Central Bank (ECB) moves when it meets later on
Thursday.
Investors expect the ECB will cut its main deposit rate by
10 basis points. But it is no certainty since rates are already
at a record-low -0.5% and further cuts could hurt bank margins
and so squeeze lending.
A press conference is due at 1230 GMT in Frankfurt, after
the monetary policy meeting. It follows emergency rate cuts in
by the Federal Reserve and the Bank of England, and the
expectation of more to come.
Futures markets have priced the lower band of the U.S. Fed
funds rate hitting zero by next week. 0#FF:
"There's a sense to which currency markets are going to
reward the currencies of countries that are seen to be using
whatever space they've got for easier fiscal and monetary
policy," said Ray Attrill, head of FX strategy at NAB.
"(But) even if the ECB wheel out a cocktail of lower rates,
stepped up QE, more long-term ... in itself, that's not going to
inspire a huge amount of confidence that the eurozone economy is
going to escape recession. The hope would be that we'll have
something more tangible on the fiscal side sooner rather than
later."