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·         The dollar stalled on Wednesday as global trade tensions remained elevated, with U.S. President Donald Trump discussing joining forces with Germany to counter China’s economic practices.
The dollar index, which measures the greenback versus a group of six major currencies, dipped 0.1 percent to 89.291 .
It had gained about 0.34 percent overnight, pulling away from a five-week low of 88.942.
The dollar recovered slightly on hopes that negotiations between the United States and China would produce a compromise and avoid a full-blown trade war.
The U.S. currency was 0.2 percent higher at 105.530 yen.
The euro was 0.15 percent higher at $1.2419 after losing 0.3 percent overnight on soft euro zone economic data and dovish-sounding comments from Erkki Liikanen, a member of European Central Bank’s Governing Council.
·         Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is finalising details for a summit with U.S. President Donald Trump on April 18 to discuss strategy before a proposed meeting between North Korean and U.S. leaders, a ruling party official told Reuters on Wednesday.

Abe will also likely ask Trump to exempt Japan from his steel and aluminum tariffs, said the official, who has been briefed on the matter and asked not to be identified.

The meeting between Abe and the U.S. leader is expected to be held at Trump’s Mar-a-Largo retreat in Florida, according to the source

·         China will soon announce a list of retaliatory tariffs on United States exports to China to counter an expected announcement from the United States of proposed new tariffs on Chinese imports, the Global Times said Wednesday.

The Chinese list will target a large number of major U.S. imports to China, said the English-language editorial.

·         The United States and South Korea agreed to revise their six-year-old trade pact with a side deal to deter competitive currency devaluation by Seoul and with concessions for U.S. autos and pharmaceutical companies, Trump administration officials said on Tuesday.

They told reporters that the deal includes provisions outlined by South Korean officials on Monday, including a 20-year extension of the 25-percent U.S. tariff on pickup trucks and a doubling of the Korean import cap on autos that meet U.S.-specifications to 50,000 per manufacturer per year.

·         State media calls North Korea’s nuclear weapons a “treasured sword of justice”.

Pyongyang has released commemorative stamps and built monuments in honour of its ballistic missile tests, while nuclear and rocket scientists have been named national heroes.

For Kim Jong Un, fully giving up nuclear weapons would mean a dramatic reversal for an authoritarian leader who has not only staked his security on his nuclear arsenal, but also spent years publicly celebrating such weapons as an integral part of his regime’s legitimacy and power.

South Korean envoys who met Kim in Pyongyang early this month quoted Kim as saying he was “committed to denuclearisation”, and that he “expressed his eagerness to meet U.S. President Donald Trump as soon as possible”.

Chinese officials who met with Kim in Beijing this week also said he committed to denuclearisation, but initial North Korean state media reports on the visit did not mention the nuclear issue.

·         Germany wants to keep up a dialogue with Moscow despite joining Western expulsions of Russian diplomats and must avoid a new Cold War, the German government’s coordinator for Russia said in a newspaper interview.

·         Oil prices fell on Wednesday, with Brent dropping back below per barrel and U.S. West Texas Intermediate dipping below , pulled down by a report of increasing U.S. crude inventories that surprised many traders.$70$65

U.S. WTI crude futures CLc1 were at $64.72 a barrel by 0700 GMT, down 53 cents, or 0.8 percent, from their previous settlement.

Brent crude futures LCOc1 were at $69.69 per barrel, down 42 cents, or 0.6 percent.

  Reference: Reuters, CNBC