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• The dollar remained weak against a basket of currencies on Friday, bruised by comments by senior U.S. officials this week backing a weak dollar, and was on pace for its worst weekly fall since June.

The dollar index .DXY, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, was down 0.33 percent at 89.1 and on track for a weekly fall of 1.6 percent.

• President Donald Trump’s comments on Thursday that he wanted a “strong dollar,” a day after Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said a weaker greenback would help U.S. trade balances in the short term, failed to put a lid on volatility and keep dollar bears in check.

• The euro was up 0.15 percent against the greenback at $1.2413, after hitting a more than three-year high of $1.2536 on Thursday.

• UBS Wealth Management upgraded its six-month forecasts for the euro on Friday to $1.28, from $1.22.

• U.S. President Donald Trump is expected to ask for $716 billion in defense spending in the 2019 budget he is to unveil next month, two U.S. officials said on Friday, representing a 7 percent increase over the 2018 budget.

The $716 billion would cover the Pentagon’s annual budget as well as spending on ongoing wars and the maintenance of the U.S. nuclear arsenal. The 2018 budget still has not passed through Congress, the U.S. officials said on condition of anonymity.

• White House Counsel Donald McGahn threatened to quit last June because he was “fed up” after President Donald Trump insisted he take steps to remove the special counsel investigating Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters.

The New York Times reported on Thursday that Trump backed down from his order to fire Special Counsel Robert Mueller after McGahn said he would resign rather than follow the directive, citing four people told of the matter

• The United States added Russian officials and energy firms to a sanctions blacklist on Friday, days before details of further possible penalties against Moscow are due to be released.

Washington could release reports as early as Monday laying out the possibilities for expanded sanctions against Russia over its alleged meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, an accusation the Kremlin has repeatedly denied.

• Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda’s comments at a World Economic Forum panel were intended to repeat the BOJ’s official view that it expects to meet its 2 percent inflation target around fiscal 2019, a central bank spokesman said on Saturd

• Beijing will shut 1,000 manufacturing companies by 2020 under a years-long plan to restructure its economy, the official Xinhua news agency reported on Saturday, citing a city official.

This year, Beijing will close 500 manufacturing companies and 176 markets and logistics centers, and relocate several universities and hospitals to suburban areas, Liu said.

• The leftist frontrunner in Mexico’s presidential race said on Friday that the renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) should wait until after the July election.

Mexican presidential hopeful Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who has a strong lead in polls, told reporters that no deal should be struck until a new administration is in place.

• Oil prices settled higher on Friday after hitting three-year highs, with crude also posting a weekly gain as a weaker U.S. dollar underpinned prices.

Brent crude futures settled up 10 cents, or 0.1 percent, at $70.52 per barrel after hitting a session high of $70.83. On Thursday, the contract climbed to as high as $71.28, its highest since 2014.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures closed at $66.14 a barrel, up 63 cents, or nearly 1 percent. On Thursday, they also reached their highest since December 2014, at $66.66.

Brent posted a nearly 2.7 percent weekly gain, while WTI reached a weekly gain of 4.3 percent.

Reference: Reuters