• The dollar edged higher on Monday, extending a two-week winning streak, as rising stock markets signaled a return in risk appetite, though investors remained wary about trade tensions between the United States and China.
The dollar rose 0.1 percent against a basket of currencies .DXY. Against the Japanese yen JPY=EBS it rose about 0.2 percent.
• This week is a big week for inflation data with the release of the Producer Price Index and Consumer Price Index. The market will also pay close attention to the minutes of the March monetary policy meeting.
• Syrian state TV said on Monday the United States was suspected of striking an air base hours after U.S. President Donald Trump warned of a “big price to pay” as aid groups said dozens of people were killed by poison gas in a rebel-held town.
The United States denied attacking the Syrian base, and France also said it had not carried it out.
“At this time, the Department of Defense is not conducting air strikes in Syria,” the Pentagon said in a statement.
“However, we continue to closely watch the situation and support the ongoing diplomatic efforts to hold those who use chemical weapons, in Syria and otherwise, accountable.”
• Syrian state media, citing a military source, said on Monday that Israeli F-15 war planes had conducted the overnight missile attack on a major air base in central Syria.
“The Israeli aggression on the T4 airport was carried out with F-15 planes that fired several missiles from above Lebanese land,” state news agency SANA said.
The Russian military said on Monday that two Israeli F-15 war planes had carried out strikes on a Syrian air base on Sunday, the Interfax news agency reported.
• German exports plunged unexpectedly in February, posting their biggest monthly drop in 2-1/2 years and narrowing the trade surplus, data showed on Monday, in a further sign that growth in Europe’s biggest economy could have reached its peak.
Seasonally adjusted exports fell by 3.2 percent on the month, the steepest decline since August 2015, data from the Federal Statistics Office showed. Imports dropped by 1.3 percent.
• China’s Foreign Ministry said on Monday that the United States was to blame for trade friction and that it was impossible for negotiations to take place under current conditions.
• Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang made the comments at a regular new briefing, adding that the United States’ measures had raised the concern of the international community.
• Chinese state researchers and media have talked down the likely impact of U.S. trade measures on the world’s second largest economy and described the Trump administration’s posturing on trade as the product of an “anxiety disorder”.
On Monday, a researcher with China’s state planning agency said China’s economy will see little impact from the trade dispute, as the country’s vast domestic market can compensate for any external impact.
“As China’s economy is stable and improving...the China-U.S. trade friction will impact our economy, but the impact will be limited,” Wang Changlin, a researcher at the National Development and Reform Commission, wrote in a post on the commission’s official microblog account.
Even with the U.S. tariffs, China can still reach its 2018 GDP growth target of around 6.5 percent and the impact on employment will be limited, Wang wrote.
• Oil markets stabilized on Monday after slumping around 2 percent last Friday on concerns over an intensifying trade dispute between the United States and China, as well as increased U.S. drilling activity.
U.S. WTI crude futures CLc1 were at $62.31 a barrel at 0643 GMT, up 25 cents, or 0.4 percent, from their previous settlement.
Brent crude futures LCOc1 were at $67.42 per barrel, up 31 cents, or 0.5 percent.
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