• The U.S. dollar slipped against the Japanese yen on Wednesday as uncertainty over possible Western military action against Syria fed risk aversion even as fears of a trade war between the United States and China faded.
The dollar was down 0.38 percent at 106.78 yen, after slipping as low as 106.65 yen.
• U.S. President Donald Trump warned Russia of imminent military action in Syria over a suspected poison gas attack, declaring that missiles “will be coming” and lambasting Moscow for standing by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
• The dollar index .DXY, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, fell to a two-week low of 89.355. But it rebounded after minutes of the U.S. Federal Reserve’s last policy meeting showed policymakers felt that the U.S. economy would firm further and that inflation would rise in the coming months. The index was down 0.04 percent at 89.547.
• The rouble fell on Wednesday to its lowest levels since 2016 as tensions with the United States over new punitive sanctions and the conflict in Syria eclipsed any benefit from higher oil prices.
The Russian market has been in a sharp sell-off since the United States imposed new sanctions against Moscow on April 6, targeting some of Russia’s biggest companies and most prominent businessmen.
Shortly after Trump’s statement, the rouble hit 65.06 versus the U.S. dollar on the Moscow Exchange, its weakest level since late November 2016, and losing more than 11 percent of its value since the sanctions were imposed.
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• US President Donald Trump has tweeted that Russia should "get ready" for missiles to be fired at its ally Syria, in response to an alleged chemical attack near Damascus on Saturday. "Get ready Russia, because they will be coming, nice and new and 'smart!'" Mr Trump said in his tweet.
Senior Russian figures have threatened to meet any US strikes with a response.
President Bashar al-Assad's government denies mounting a chemical attack on the rebel-held town of Douma.
In one of his tweets on Wednesday, Mr Trump called the Syrian leader a "gas killing animal".
In another, he painted a dark picture of US-Russia relations but said it did not have to be that way.
The US, UK and France have agreed to work together and are believed to be preparing for a military strike in response to the alleged chemical attack at the weekend.
• China’s ambassador to Peru warned on Wednesday that it would be disrespectful for the United States to drag Latin America into its trade dispute with Beijing, but told Reuters a potential trade war between the world’s top two economies could bolster the region’s exports.
Speaking on the eve of the Summit of the Americas that will bring leaders from across the western hemisphere to Peru this week, the ambassador Jia Guide downplayed reports that the U.S. planned to use the event to urge Latin American leaders to work with Washington and not Beijing on trade.
• All of the Federal Reserve’s policymakers felt that the U.S. economy would firm further and that inflation would rise in the coming months, minutes of the central bank’s last policy meeting on March 20-21 released on Wednesday showed.
• U.S. consumer prices fell for the first time in 10 months in March, weighed down by a decline in the cost of gasoline, but underlying inflation continued to firm amid rising prices for healthcare and rental accommodation.
The Consumer Price Index slipped 0.1 percent last month, the first and largest drop since May 2017, after climbing 0.2 percent in February, the Labor Department said.
In the 12 months through March, the CPI increased 2.4 percent. That was the largest annual gain in a year and followed February’s 2.2 percent increase. Annual inflation is rising as the big price declines from last year drop from the calculation.
Excluding the volatile food and energy components, the CPI climbed 0.2 percent, matching February’s increase.
The so-called core CPI rose 2.1 percent year-on-year in March, the largest advance since February 2017, after increasing 1.8 percent in February. The annual core CPI also accelerated as the drag from last year’s plunge in prices for cellphone service plans dropped out of the calculation.
• Oil prices jumped on Wednesday, hitting their highest in more than three years on Wednesday after Saudi Arabia said it intercepted missiles over Riyadh and U.S. President Donald Trump warned Russia of imminent military action in Syria.
Brent LCOc1 rose $1.02 on the day to settle at $72.06 a barrel, having touched a session high of $73.09. U.S. crude futures CLc1 rose $1.31 to settle at $66.82 a barrel, a 2 percent gain, having traded as high as $67.45.
• A Bulgarian man has been charged in the United States with exporting aircraft parts to Syria in violation of a U.S. embargo, the U.S. Justice Department said on Wednesday.
Reference: Reuters, BBC
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