· The dollar was steady at 110.030 yen JPY= after going as low as 109.560 overnight, its weakest in eight weeks.
The euro was flat at $1.1759 EUR= while the dollar index against a basket of major currencies stood steady at 93.534 .DXY after dipping 0.1 percent the previous day.
Currency markets focused on the U.S. producer price index data due later in the session. Investors will study the numbers to get a feel for the U.S. inflation trend and any impact they data could have on the Federal Reserve's monetary policy.
· North Korea will develop a plan by mid-August to launch four intermediate range missiles at the U.S. territory of Guam before presenting it to leader Kim Jong Un who will make a decision on whether to proceed, the North's state media said on Thursday.
Trump's unexpected remarks prompted North Korea to say on Thursday it was finalizing plans to fire four intermediate-range missiles over Japan to land 30-40 km (18-25 miles) from Guam, more than 3,000 km (2,000 miles) to the south.
The unusually detailed report on the attack plan marked a further escalation in tensions between Pyongyang and Washington after U.S. President Donald Trump warned North Korea earlier this week it would face "fire and fury" if it threatened the United States.
· U.S. productivity grew more than expected in the second quarter as hours worked rose at their fastest pace in 1-1/2 years, leading to a modest increase in labor costs that could keep inflation muted in the near term.
The trend in productivity, however, remains weak, suggesting robust economic growth will be hard to achieve. President Donald Trump has vowed to boost annual growth to 3 percent through tax cuts, infrastructure spending and regulatory rollbacks.
· Oil prices were about 1 percent higher on Wednesday after a report showed U.S. refineries processed record amounts of crude in the latest week, eating into inventories, although a surprise jump in gasoline stockpiles limited price gains.
Brent crude LCOc1, the global benchmark, ended the session up 56 cents, or 1.1 percent, at $52.70, after two days of declines. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude CLc1 gained 39 cents, or 0.8 percent to settle at $49.56.
· U.S. crude inventories USOILC=ECI fell 6.5 million barrels last week, government data showed, steeper than the expected decrease of 2.7 million barrels. Refiners processed nearly 17.6 million barrels of crude, surpassing a record set in May and the most for any week since the U.S. Department of Energy started keeping data in 1982. [EIA/S]
Reference: Reuters
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