· The dollar slipped against a basket of currencies on Thursday, snapping a three-day winning streak, as investors looked to take profits on the greenback’s rally this week ahead of the end of the quarter.
The dollar index .DXY, which tracks the greenback against six major currencies, was down 0.23 percent at 93.143. The index was coming off its strongest three-day performance in nine months and is still up about 1 percent this week.
The dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of rivals, edged down to 93.085 by 6:49 a.m. HK/SIN after climbing as high as 93.666 overnight. Against the yen, the dollar traded at 112.41, coming off the113 handle touched during Asian trade on Thursday.
The euro EUR= held at $1.1778, having bounced from a six-week trough of $1.1715, but was still down 1.5percent for the week so far. If it remains there, that would be the largest weekly loss since November 2016.
· A Commerce Department report showed the economy grew a bit faster than previously estimated in the second quarter, but the momentum probably slowed in the third as Hurricanes Harvey and Irma temporarily curbed activity. The storms also pushed up initial claims for state unemployment benefits for the week, the Labor Department said.
· Initial claims for state unemployment benefits increased 12,000 to a seasonally adjusted 272,000 for the week ended Sept. 23, the Labor Department said on Thursday. Data for the prior week was revised to show1,000 more applications received than previously reported.
Claims have now been below the 300,000 threshold, which is associated with a robust labor market, for 134 straight weeks. That is the longest such stretch since 1970, when the labor market was smaller.
· Kansas City Fed President Esther George, a non-voting member this year, said on Thursday that continued, gradual interest rate hikes were appropriate for economic expansion, Reuters said.
· Fed funds futures <0#FF:> imply around a 73 percent chance of a move at the Dec. 12-13 policy meeting.
As a result, yields on two-year Treasuries US2YT=RR reached a near nine-year top before pulling back a touch to1.46 percent on Friday. They had been as low as 1.254 percent early in September.
· Economists at the Royal Bank of Canada gave an optimistic take on tax reform plans unveiled in the U.S., suggesting in its current form it will boost growth and urge investors to rethink the stock markets.
"Acknowledging that some key details are still missing, a good baseline is that this tax plan could increase GDP (gross domestic product) growth by at least 0.5 percent per year," senior U.S. economists Tom Porcelli and Jacob Oubina at RBC Capital Markets, and Michael Cloherty, head of U.S. rates strategy at the firm, said in a note on Wednesday evening.
"We think the fact that tax cuts are coming at the mature stage of the cycle and not in a typical post-recession means the 'propensity to spend' could very well be higher than historically observed … Over a decade, the level of GDP could be 5 percent higher than a baseline forecast," they added.
· The European Union and Britain made progress in the latest round of divorce talks, but not enough to move to the next phase of discussions on a transition period after Brexit or a future trade deal, top negotiators said on Thursday.
· Russian and North Korean officials will meet in Moscow on Friday to discuss the North Korea crisis, a move welcomed by the United States, which has been locked in am increasingly heated war of words with Pyongyang over its nuclear and missile programs.
· Toronto, where home prices have risen 50 percent over the past five years, faces the highest risk of a housing bubble among 20 global financial centers, according to a UBS report released on Thursday.
· More than 92% of voters in Iraqi Kurdistan have opted for independence, according to election monitors, in an overwhelming endorsement of a proposed split from Baghdad that has sparked increasing threats of air and land blockades that could be imposed as early as Friday.
The result came after Iraq’s parliament authorised the prime minister, Haider al-Abadi, to send troops into areas disputed between Arabs and Kurds that were contentiously included in the ballot.
· Oil prices slipped on Thursday, further backing off from 2015 peaks hit earlier in the week as tension around northern Iraq following the Kurdistan region’s vote in favor of independence spurred fresh supply concerns.
U.S. crude CLc1 settled down 58 cents, or 1.1 percent, to $51.56 a barrel after reaching a five-month intraday high of $52.86.
Brent LCOc1 ended down 49 cents, or 0.9 percent, at $57.41 a barrel, after hitting a more than two-year high of $59.49 on Tuesday after Monday’s referendum vote prompted Turkey to threaten to close the region’s oil pipeline.
Reference: Reuters, CNBC, The Guardian 
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