• The Swiss franc jumped on Wednesday and higher yielding currencies such as the Australian dollar tumbled as the latest bout of geopolitical tensions emerging from the Korean Peninsula prompted investors to cut positions.
The dollar weakened against the yen, which is often sought in times of geopolitical tension. The U.S. currency was down 0.3 percent at 109.94 yen, following a retreat to 109.740, its weakest since June 15.
• "Dollar/yen has already gone below 110.00 yen, and at this stage we are likely to see the pair begin to bottom out as the market finds time to assess the situation," said Kyosuke Suzuki, director of forex at Societe Generale in Tokyo.
• Sterling hit a 10-month low against the euro on Tuesday as investors grew more bearish about Britain's economic outlook after consumer spending fell for a third month in a row in July.
Against the euro, sterling fell to 90.87 pence, its lowest since October 2016, before recovering partially.
It has fallen nearly 2 percent in the last three sessions, after the BOE struck a dovish stance last week.
The British pound, which has fallen more than 2 percent over the last three sessions, dropped below $1.30 for the first time since July 21.
• The ECB is set to reconsider its monetary stimulus programme in the autumn. Core inflation in the currency bloc unexpectedly rose to a four-year high last month, while unemployment has fallen to its lowest since 2009.
• "The Brexit negotiations don't seem to have started on a strong note and that is weighing on the economy and the currency," Esther Maria Reichelt, an FX strategist at Commerzbank in Frankfurt, said.
• China's factory price inflation held steady in July in a positive sign for industrial output and profits for the third quarter, even though a government-led drive to reduce debt is expected to cool earnings and economic growth by year-end.
• The producer price index (PPI) rose 5.5 percent last month from a year earlier, unchanged from June, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on Wednesday. Analysts polled by Reuters had expected producer prices to hold steady for a third straight month at 5.5 percent.
• "We expect the PPI y/y to remain strong in the coming months, as the capacity reduction proceeds," said David Qu, markets economist at ANZ in a note to clients.
• Inflation has been sluggish in major economies including the United States, Europe and Japan despite brightening growth.
China's consumer price index slowed slightly to 1.4 percent in July from a year earlier, missing market expectations, pressured by a 1.1 percent annual fall in food prices. Analysts had predicted consumer inflation to have remained unchanged at 1.5 percent for the third month in a row.
• Crude futures fell for a third day on Wednesday despite a bigger than expected drop in U.S. oil inventories reported by an industry group, with doubts lingering over OPEC's ability to restrain supply as promised.
Benchmark Brent crude was down 27 cents, or 0.5 percent, at $51.87 a barrel at 0233 GMT. In the previous session, it settled down 0.4 percent.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude was down 21 cents, or 0.4 percent, at $48.96 a barrel, after falling 0.4 percent on Tuesday.
• Crude stockpiles in the U.S. dropped more than expected last week as imports declined and refinery runs increased, while gasoline inventories grew unexpectedly, the American Petroleum Institute said late on Tuesday.
• Crude inventories declined by 7.8 million barrels in the week to 478.4 million, compared with analyst expectations for a decrease of 2.7 million barrels.
• The U.S. Energy Information Administration will release its weekly petroleum status report at 10:30 a.m. ET (1430 GMT) on Wednesday.
Reference: Reuters, CNBC
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