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• The dollar inched higher on Wednesday as the near-term focus shifted to the minutes of the Federal Reserve’s last policy meeting for hints on the future pace of U.S. monetary tightening.

The dollar index rose 0.1 percent to 89.805, which was up about 1.8 percent from Friday’s three-year low of 88.251.

The greenback rose 0.3 percent to 107.70 yen. Market players said stop-loss dollar buying gave an added lift to the dollar, which rose to 107.90 yen at one point.

The euro held steady at $1.2332, having retreated from a three-year high of $1.2556 set on Friday.

• At Chair Janet Yellen’s last meeting Jan. 30-31, the central bank pledged twice to make “further gradual adjustments” in interest rates as opposed to just “gradual adjustments” at the prior gathering. While the language was consistent with adding more emphasis to the plan for rate hikes, the minutes of the closed-door meeting, due Wednesday, will probably give details on what message officials wanted to send with the wording tweak.

One possibility is that it was an indication the Federal Open Market Committee was debating raising interest rates by more than the three moves officials had penciled in for 2018. Another idea is that policy makers may have discussed increasing their estimate of the neutral interest rate — a theoretical level that neither speeds up nor slows down the economy — in light of new U.S. fiscal stimulus.

• U.S. Vice President Mike Pence was scheduled to meet with North Korean officials, including leader Kim Jong Un’s sister, while in South Korea for the Winter Olympics this month but the North Koreans canceled at the last minute, U.S. officials said on Tuesday.

• The final version of a landmark deal aimed at cutting trade barriers in some of the Asia-Pacific’s fastest-growing economies was released on Wednesday, signaling the pact was a step closer to reality even without its star member the United States.

The 11 remaining nations, led by Japan, finalized a revised trade pact in January, called the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP). It is expected to be signed in Chile on March 8.

• The new Bank of Japan leadership won’t be able to raise interest rates this year as the central bank missed the best opportunity to do so in 2017, former BOJ board member Sayuri Shirai said on Wednesday.

Stable markets, solid economic growth and a tightening job market would have allowed the BOJ to kick off the process of normalising its crisis-mode stimulus last year, Shirai said.

But the recent market sell-off has made it difficult for the central bank to seek an exit from ultra-easy policy, underscoring the challenges BOJ Governor Haruhiko Kuroda faces heading into his second, five-year term, Shirai said.

• Oil prices fell on Wednesday, weighed down by a rebound in the U.S. dollar from three-year lows hit last week and an expected rise in U.S. oil production.

Reference: Reuters, CNBC