• The dollar rose against a basket of currencies on Wednesday, on pace for a fifth-straight day of gains, taking support from higher U.S. Treasury yields.
The dollar index .DXY, which tracks the greenback against six major currencies, was up 0.13 percent at 93.609. The greenback was 0.67 percent higher against the Japanese yen at 112.94 yen.
Benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury US10YT=RR yields hit a six-day high and 30-year bond yields US30YT=RR hit a five-day high.
• U.S. Senate Republicans appeared to have enough votes on Wednesday to pass a budget measure that is crucial to President Donald Trump’s hopes of enacting tax reform legislation before the end of the year.
• The U.S. Federal Reserve is stepping-up its focus on payment security as the industry reaches a “critical juncture” driven by new technologies, Federal Reserve board governor Jerome Powell said on Wednesday.
• Speaking at a conference in New York, Powell said the U.S. central bank would early next year launch a study analyzing payment security vulnerabilities and also planned to create new working groups focused on reducing the industry costs associated with securing payments.
• China is expected on Thursday to post a modest slowdown in third quarter economic growth from the previous quarter as the government’s efforts to rein in the property market and debt risks weigh on activity in the world’s second-largest economy.
Analysts polled by Reuters expect gross domestic product (GDP) to have grown 6.8 percent in the July-September period, cooling from the previous quarter’s 6.9 percent expansion.
• Chinese President Xi Jinping said Wednesday that China supports an open world economy and pledged further liberalization of its market to foreign investors — even as he touted the benefits of a socialist system at opening of the 19th Communist Party Congress.
In a three-and-a-half hour speech both retrospective and forward-looking, Xi discussed China's progress and signaled how China sees its national development and international role in the next five years.
• Oil prices settled slightly higher on Wednesday, with Brent touching three-week highs and then retreating after a surprising drop in U.S. refining rates and an unexpected build in fuel stocks signaled slower demand in the world’s top oil consumer.
Brent crude futures LCOc1 settled up 27 cents to $58.15 a barrel, off the three-week high of $58.54 a barrel hit earlier on worries about ongoing tensions around oil-rich Iraq and Iran.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures CLc1 settled 16 cents higher at $52.04 a barrel.
• U.S. crude inventories fell 5.7 million barrels last week, the Energy Information Administration said, exceeding analysts’ expectations. [EIA/S]
Reference: Reuters
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