· The dollar edged up towards a seven-month high on Monday as investors bet the United States and China would avoid a full-blown trade war, although tensions between the two slowed its gains.
The dollar index versus a basket of six major currencies crept up 0.1 percent to 94.862.
The index was close to 95.131, a peak scaled on Friday, thanks to the dollar soaring more than 1 percent last week after the U.S. Federal Reserve gave a hawkish signal on interest rates while the European Central Bank struck a dovish tone.
The dollar was down 0.2 percent at 110.44 yen, weighed down as risk appetites cooled on the back of falling Tokyo shares.
The euro fell 0.15 percent to $1.1592, extending losses after sliding 1.3 percent the previous week after the ECB signalled it will keep interest rates at record lows well into next year.
· South Korea and the United States are expected to announce the suspension of "large-scale" military drills this week, with the provision that they would restart if North Korea failed to keep its promise to denuclearize, news agency Yonhap said on Sunday.
Citing an unnamed government source, the South Korean news agency said the suspension was likely to affect only major joint exercises, not more routine military training.
· Goldman Sachs said it expected China to adopt a slightly easier monetary stance in the face of tit-for-tat tariffs between Beijing and Washington that, while likely to have limited immediate impact on the economy, were at risk of escalating.
Goldman Sachs analysts forecast that the negative growth impact on China of the tariffs would be 10-20 basis points of gross domestic product (GDP), while the effects on Chinese consumer price index (CPI) inflation would be “modest, on the order of 10-20 basis points”.
Goldman has forecast China’s gross domestic product growth to be 6.6 percent this year. Last week, it said it expected inflation to remain “mild” in coming months after the May CPI number came in unchanged at 1.8 percent year-on-year.
· Britain’s economy looks on track to grow at its weakest rate since 2009 this year due to Brexit uncertainties, higher oil prices and fears of a trade war, the British Chambers of Commerce said on Monday.
The BCC cut its 2018 growth forecast to 1.3 percent from 1.4 percent — in line with the average in a Reuters poll of economists published on June 7 — and also cut its outlook for 2019 to 1.4 percent.
· Oil prices on Monday extended falls from late last week after China threatened duties on American crude imports in an escalating trade dispute with Washington, while supply from OPEC and Russia is also expected to rise.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures CLc1 touched their lowest level since April, falling to $63.59 per barrel before edging back to $63.98 by 0635 GMT.
That was still down $1.07, or 1.6 percent, from their last settlement.
International oil prices also fell, with Brent crude futures LCOc1 down 46 cents, or 0.6 percent, at $72.98 per barrel.
Reference: Reuters, CNBC
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