· The dollar fell to a three-year low against its peers on Wednesday, losing its earlier bounce as the euro edged back after shaking off a setback to Chancellor Angela Merkel’s chances of forging a “grand coalition” in Germany.
The dollar index against a basket of six major currencies last stood little changed at 90.446 after hitting 90.113, its lowest since December 2014.
The euro was 0.05 percent higher at $1.2266, brushing off weakness seen overnight and going as high as $1.2323 earlier, its strongest since December 2014.
· Most Asian currencies slipped on Wednesday as the dollar rebounded from a three-year low, with the Philippine peso shedding half a percent on concerns of widening trade deficit.
The dollar index against a basket of six major currencies was up 0.2 percent at 90.569 after hitting its lowest since December 2014 at 90.113.
· China's central bank set its official yuan midpoint at a more than two-year high on Wednesday at 6.4335 per dollar, underpinned by a solid spot yuan performance a day earlier and broad dollar weakness in global markets overnight.
Wednesday's official midpoint was 37 pips, or 0.06 percent, firmer than the previous fix of 6.4372 on Tuesday and was the strongest since Dec. 10, 2015.
China's yuan advanced for the fifth straight trading day on Tuesday to its highest level in more than two years at the official local close.
Meanwhile, the dollar fell to a three-year low against its peers, with an earlier bounce sputtering as the euro edged back after shaking off a potentially negative turn in German politics.
· Japan’s central bank is set to maintain upbeat price forecasts next week and paint a slightly better picture of the economy than it did three months ago, signaling its conviction the country is making slow but steady progress in eradicating deflation.
Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda will likely remind markets at his post-meeting briefing that an exit from ultra-easy policy will be some time away, with inflation still distant from its 2 percent target.
But Kuroda may struggle to convince investors, who have become sensitive to even subtle signs the BOJ may follow the footsteps of its U.S. and European counterparts in dialing back crisis-mode stimulus, analysts say.
With no change to monetary policy expected at next week’s rate review, markets will focus on Kuroda’s comments and the BOJ’s new quarterly forecasts for clues on how quickly the central bank could start whittling down monetary support.
· President Donald Trump’s former chief strategist Steve Bannon declined on Tuesday to comply with a subpoena ordering him to answer questions from a U.S. House intelligence panel about his time at the White House as part of its investigation into allegations of Russian interference in the U.S. election.
· Twenty nations agreed on Tuesday to consider tougher sanctions to press North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons and U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson warned Pyongyang it could trigger a military response if it did not chose negotiations.
China said on Wednesday a just concluded meeting in Canada about North Korea showed a Cold War mentality and would only undermine a settlement of the North Korea issue.
China did not attend the meeting in Vancouver, saying it would not help with efforts to resolve the North Korean nuclear issue.
· American shale oil drillers will deliver another month of strong growth in February, the U.S. Department of Energy forecast on Tuesday.
Oil output from the nation's major shale oil regions is poised to grow by 111,000 barrels a day next month, according to the latest drilling productivity report from the department's U.S. Energy Information Administration.
EIA expects total production from the seven regions to hit 6.55 million barrels a day in February. The administration also raised its estimate for January production to 6.44 million barrels a day.
Reference: Reuters, CNBC
Thai
Eng