· The dollar hovered near three-month highs against a currency basket on Monday, while the euro nursed losses after the European Central Bank and unrest in Spain’s Catalonia led it to post its worst week this year.
The dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six major rivals, dipped 0.1 percent to 94.857 but remained not far from Friday’s three-month high of 95.150.
The euro was steady at $1.1605, after plumbing a three-month low of $1.1574 on Friday, and losing 1.6 percent for the week, its worst performance in 11 months.
· President Donald Trump is leaning toward nominating Federal Reserve Governor Jerome Powell to be the next head of the U.S. central bank, two sources familiar with the matter said on Friday.
The sources cautioned that while Powell had emerged as the leading candidate from a short list of five, Trump had not made a final decision and could always change his mind.
“I will be announcing it sometime next week,” Trump said in a video statement on Instagram. “It will be a person who hopefully will do a fantastic job. I have someone very specific in mind and I think everyone will be very impressed.”
He is expected to announce his pick, which would need to win Senate approval, before he departs on a trip to Asia on Nov. 3.
The term of current Fed chair Janet Yellen ends in February 2018, though her term as a Federal Reserve Board governor does not expire until 2024.
· Credit ratings agency Standard & Poor’s unexpectedly raised its sovereign rating for Italy to BBB on Friday, the first such increase by S&P for at least three decades.
S&P said the rise from a previously given BBB- was justified because of Italy’s strengthening economic outlook, growing investment, a steady uptick in employment and improvements in the debt-laden banking sector.
It maintained its outlook as “stable”.
· Oil prices jumped about 2 percent on Friday, with global benchmark Brent crude rising above $60 per barrel, on support among the world’s top producers for extending a deal to rein in output and as the dollar retreated from three-month peaks.
Saudi Arabia and Russia declared their support for extending an OPEC-led deal to cut supplies for another nine months, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries’ secretary general said ahead of the group’s next policy meeting on Nov. 30. The pact currently runs to March 2018.
Brent futures LCOc1 rose $1.14, or 1.9 percent, to settle at $60.44 a barrel after hitting a session peak of $60.53, the highest since July 2015 and more than 35 percent above 2017 lows touched in June.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude oil (WTI) CLc1 ended the session up $1.26, or 2.4 percent, at $53.90 after reaching a session peak of $53.98 a barrel, the highest since early March.
Reference: Reuters, CNBC
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