• The dollar rose to a six-day high against a basket of major currencies on Tuesday, extending a rebound from a three-year low last week, helped by rising U.S. Treasury yields and as some traders trimmed overstretched bets against the U.S. currency.
The dollar index .DXY, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, was up 0.69 percent at 89.713, on pace for its best one-day gain in nearly two weeks. The euro was last 0.58 percent lower at $1.2335.
• Traders in the currency market were also watching this week’s large U.S. government debt auctions for clues to international investors’ appetite for U.S. assets.
• U.S. yields rose in government debt auctions on Tuesday and yields on short-term bills hit their highest levels since September 2008, bolstering the U.S. dollar but helping end a six-session rebound in world stocks.
U.S. Treasury yields rose, with the benchmark 10-year yield hovering near a four-year peak as investors made room for this week’s deluge of $258 billion of government debt supply.
Benchmark 10-year notes last fell 4/32 in price to yield 2.8896 percent.
The Treasury also sold $55 billion in one-month bills at an interest rate of 1.380 percent, and $28 billion in two-year fixed-rate debt at a yield of 2.255 percent, the highest level since August 2008.
• Bitcoin hit a three-week high on Tuesday and has surged nearly 100 percent from its lowest level this year, as its recovery continued after South Korea’s financial regulator eased its stance on cryptocurrencies, weeks after it considered shutting down digital currency exchanges.
• U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller on Tuesday stepped up pressure on two former Trump campaign aides to cooperate in his probe into possible collusion with Russia, unsealing a criminal charge against a lawyer for lying to Mueller’s investigators.
- The attorney, Alex van der Zwaan, the son-in-law of one of Russia’s richest men, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., to a charge of lying to the Special Counsel’s office. A U.S. judge set his sentencing for April 3.
- The case involves work that van der Zwaan, a 33-year-old Dutch citizen, performed in 2012 about Ukraine for Paul Manafort and Rick Gates, senior officials in Donald Trump’s 2016 election campaign.
The two former aides have been charged with conspiracy to launder money and failure to register as foreign agents in connection with work for a pro-Russia Ukrainian party.
• South Korea’s central bank chief said on Wednesday the Bank of Korea is prepared to respond to any negative impact from faster-than-expected policy tightening in the U.S.
“If (the Fed moves) faster than expected, it will immediately impact international financial markets and also domestic markets as well, so we’re prepared to respond to such a scenario,” Governor Lee Ju-yeol told reporters in Zurich after signing a bilateral currency swap with Switzerland.
• Euro zone finance ministers on Monday chose Spanish Economy Minister Luis de Guindos to succeed European Central Bank Vice President Vitor Constancio in May. The move is likely to boost the chances of German Bundesbank Governor Jens Weidmann becoming head of the ECB next year to succeed Mario Draghi in 2019, possibly giving the ECB’s policy a more hawkish tilt.
• U.S. crude hit a near two-week high in a choppy session on Tuesday amid inventory declines at a key storage hub and on expectations that top producers could extend cooperation beyond 2018, while Brent fell under pressure from a stronger dollar.
Brent crude futures ended the session 42 cents, or 0.6 percent, lower at $65.25 a barrel after trading between $65.81 and $64.78 a barrel.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures settled up 22 cents, or 0.4 percent, at $61.90 a barrel, as the March contract expired. Prices rallied to a high of $62.74 a barrel early in the session, the highest since Feb. 7.
Reference: Reuters
Thai
Eng