• The dollar fell against a basket of major currencies on Thursday, as its rally from a three-year low last week ran out of steam, and the yen soared against the greenback as heightened volatility led investors to favor the Japanese currency.
The dollar index .DXY, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, was down 0.31 percent at 89.724, off an overnight high of 90.235. Through Wednesday, the index gained nearly 2 percent since hitting a three-year low of 88.253 on Friday.
• A slight pullback in U.S. Treasury yields on Thursday may have also weighed on the dollar, Vassili Serebriakov, currency strategist at Credit Agricole in New York, said.
Benchmark 10-year notes US10YT=RR were up 4/32 in price to yield 2.926 percent, after rising to a four-year high of 2.957 percent on Wednesday.
• The dollar slipped 1.04 percent against the yen to 106.64 yen, as increased volatility across markets sent traders looking for a safe haven.
• The euro was 0.42 percent higher against the greenback at $1.2333.
• European Central Bank policymakers meeting last month felt it was too early to change their communication stance to signal a normalization of policy, even if confidence was growing that inflation would finally rise back to target, minutes published on Thursday showed.
• Dallas Federal Reserve Bank President Robert Kaplan said on Thursday that three U.S. interest-rate increases in 2018 is “appropriate” but that stronger-than-expected economic data could change that.
Neither recent stock-market volatility, nor recent economic data, has changed that outlook, Kaplan said, adding that he is watching market swings to make sure they do not create tighter financial conditions that could slow economic growth.
• Investors also digested Fed speak from Thursday. St. Louis Federal Reserve President James Bullard told CNBC's "Squawk Box" that raising interest rates too aggressively could slow the economy too much.
• The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits fell to a near 45-year low last week, pointing to strong job growth in February and solid momentum in the economy.
• The head of the White House Council of the Economic Advisers on Thursday downplayed concerns over recent volatility in the U.S. stock market, saying it was “not unusual.”
“It’s a regular thing in the stock market,” CEA Chairman Kevin Hassett told reporters at a regular White House briefing. “I don’t think this is anything unusual or something for people to be concerned about.”
• Japan’s core consumer inflation was steady in January from a year earlier in a sign a strengthening economy has yet to prompt companies to raise prices, a challenge policy makers have yet to overcome despite years of massive stimulus.
The nationwide core consumer price index, which includes oil products but excludes volatile fresh food costs, rose 0.9 percent in January from a year earlier, data showed on Friday.
• Oil prices rose to two-week highs on Thursday, boosted by data showing a surprise draw in U.S. crude inventories and also by a drop in the dollar.
West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude CLc1 futures rose $1.09, or about 1.8 percent, to settle at $62.77 a barrel. U.S. crude traded between $60.75 and $63.09, its highest since Feb. 7.
Brent crude LCOc1 futures rose 97 cents to settle up about 1.5 percent at $66.39 a barrel. It hit a two-week peak at $66.56.
Reference: Reuters, CNBC
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