· The dollar is on track to post its best weekly performance so far this year as a bounce in U.S. Treasury yields fuelled by the Trump administration’s tax plan triggered a shake out in multi-year short bets against the greenback.
The dollar index .DXY, a trade-weighted basket of the greenback against its rivals, was broadly flat at 93.12. It has gained more than 1 percent this week, putting it on track for its best weekly performance since December.
· U.S. Federal Reserve Vice-Chairman Stanley Fischer said it was important for the central bank to reverse its massive bond buying program, given that it had previously said they were a temporary measure.
"The importance of the shift that is now underway, of reducing the size of the Fed's balance sheet (is that) I think it's very important that we said these are temporary measures, that they be temporary measures," he told a conference on central bank independence hosted by the Bank of England.
Fischer also said he thought the Fed was communicating its policy intentions and its commitment to tighten policy better now than in 2013, when concern about reduced stimulus led to a jump in bond yields known as the 'taper tantrum'.
· The overhang of delayed payments yet to be made from the EU budget reached its highest ever level last year, the EU auditor said on Thursday, highlighting an ominous turn as Britain haggles over its Brexit bill.
The 28 current member states, including Britain, committed to pay nearly 1 trillion euros ($1.2 trillion) over the period between 2014 and 2020, the current EU budgetary period. But delays in some of the projects and programmes that draw down those funds mean that a hefty 239 billion euros remains unspent.
· Labor market disparities in the U.S. economy are curbing the nation's long-run potential growth, Federal Reserve Governor Lael Brainard said on Tuesday, as she urged the central bank to undertake more research to help diminish inequality.
· China is making progress in enforcing sanctions imposed on North Korea, a U.S. State Department official said on Thursday, and urged sceptical members of Congress not to rush to enact new ones before giving Beijing’s efforts a chance to take effect.
· The White House struggled on Thursday to defend its new tax plan against criticism that it would help the rich at the expense of lower classes, as Republicans in Congress prepared to move ahead with actual legislation.
A day after President Donald Trump unveiled the plan and called it “a miracle for the middle class,” White House economic adviser Gary Cohn said he could not guarantee that all middle-class Americans would see their tax bills decline.
· The nation's top military officer said Tuesday that despite elevated tensions and threats from Pyongyang, the U.S. has not detected any unusual military activity by North Korea.
"While the political space is clearly very charged right now, we haven't seen a change in the posture of North Korean forces," said Marine Corps Gen. Joseph Dunford, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. "We watch that very carefully."
Gen. Joseph Dunford also said North Korea "buried much of their capability underground, which creates new challenges."
· Bank of England Governor Mark Carney said on Friday that Britain’s economy was on track for the central bank to start raising record-low interest rates in the “relatively near term.”
“What we have said, that if the economy continues on the track that it’s been on, and all indications are that it is, in the relatively near term we can expect that interest rates would increase somewhat,” Carney told BBC radio.
· EU chief executive Jean-Claude Juncker said on Friday he did not expect “sufficient progress” to be made in Brexit talks by the end of October to allow the EU to open a new phase discussing future trade relations with Britain.
· Oil prices were mixed on Friday, but both Brent and U.S. crude were set to chalk up another weekly gain as investors bet that efforts to cut a global glut are working and that the demand outlook is improving.
U.S. crude CLc1 was down 8 cents at $51.48 a barrel at 0641 GMT, after earlier rising slightly. Still, the contract is heading for a fourth consecutively weekly gain and is on track for a 9 percent advance this month.
Brent LCOc1 rose 1 cent to $57.42 a barrel, heading for a fifth weekly climb and a nearly 10 percent gain for September.
Reference: Reuters,CNBC
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