• The dollar was on the defensive on Friday after wrangling over a bill to change the U.S. tax code dented confidence, while the euro sagged after the European Central Bank signalled it would maintain stimulus for as long as needed.
The greenback was off 0.2 percent at 112.170 yen JPY=, having dropped to an eight-day low of 112.065 overnight.
The dollar lost further ground after two U.S. Republican senators on Thursday were reported to have sought changes to the proposed legislation to overhaul the U.S. tax code.
The euro was little changed at $1.1787 EUR= after losing about 0.4 percent overnight.
• Russian President Vladimir Putin told an annual end-of-year press conference on Thursday that he will run for president in early 2018 as an independent candidate.
At the question and answer session with Russian and foreign media in Moscow, the president was asked by a journalist from the Kommersant newspaper whom he was running with for president in March 2018.
The upper house of the Russian parliament voted on Friday to set March 18 as the date of next year’s presidential election.
• The Bank of England's (BOE) Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) voted 9-0 on Thursday to keep its monetary policy unchanged, leaving the U.K. interest rate at 0.5 percent in a result widely expected by markets.
The focus now moves to inflation, which is at a five-and-a-half-year high, putting pressure on the bank to raise interest rates in order to temper rising living costs. Markets are looking for clues as to when and how frequently any rate hikes might take place in the coming year.
Sterling dipped slightly from 1.3446 against the dollar to 1.3413 on the announcement as did the 10-year gilt yield, which moved from 1.214 percent to 1.206 percent, though the result was largely priced into the markets already.
• Japan’s exports are expected to have risen for a 12th straight month in November, a Reuters poll showed on Friday, as buoyant overseas demand helps drive a steady economic recovery.
Exports are expected to have risen 14.6 percent in November from a year earlier, the poll of 19 economists showed, thanks to strong overseas demand for cars, semiconductor production equipment and steel.
The expected gain in exports would follow 14.0 percent growth in October.
• Oil markets were stable on Friday as the Forties pipeline outage in the North Sea and ongoing OPEC-led production cuts supported prices, while rising output from the United States kept crude from rising further.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures CLc1 were at $57.18 a barrel at 0539 GMT, up 14 cents from their last settlement.
Brent crude futures LCOc1, the international benchmark for oil prices, were at $63.34 a barrel, up 3 cents from their previous close.
• A trio of closely watched energy organizations all raised their forecasts for American oil production this week, but the prognosticators can't seem to agree on one thing: Just how much more crude will U.S. drillers pump?
The flexibility and innovation in the U.S. shale oil patch — where new production can be started up quickly — is making it difficult for forecasters to make projections about American oil supply in 2018, the Paris-based International Energy Agency said in a monthly report on Thursday.
Reference: Reuters, South China Morning Post
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