• The dollar struggled near 2-1/2 month lows, while the yen also sagged on Friday on reduced safe haven demand amid a switch in investors' view that the Sino-U.S. trade conflict would not lead to an immediate global shock.
The dollar index (DXY) against a basket of six major currencies stood little changed at 93.908 after touching 93.829 overnight, its lowest since July 9.
The index has fallen more than 1 percent this week, with investor flows being diverted from the greenback to other currencies including emerging market ones amid an ebb in U.S.-China trade war concerns.
The euro was a beneficiary of the shift in currency flows. The single currency was 0.05 percent higher at $1.1783 (EUR=) after climbing 0.9 percent the previous day, when it had scaled a three-month peak of $1.1785.
The dollar was up 0.25 percent at 112.745 yen , its strongest in two months.
China's yuan was a shade higher at 6.8420 per dollar in onshore trade . It has gained about 0.35 percent on the week.
• Britain will leave the European Union without a deal unless the bloc’s leaders soften their position on the Irish border, Transport Secretary Chris Grayling told the BBC.
• Business confidence among Japan’s big manufacturers was expected to have edged up in the three months to September, although trade worries cloud the outlook, a Reuters poll found ahead of the central bank’s quarterly sentiment survey.
“The economy remains solid, but the China-U.S. trade conflict and natural disasters’ negative impacts are likely to be felt in the survey,” said Akiyoshi Takumori, chief economist at Sumitomo Mitsui Asset Management.
• Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and U.S. President Donald Trump will hold a summit meeting on Sept. 26, Japan’s top government spokesman said on Friday.
Their meeting will be held on the sidelines of Abe’s visit to New York to attend a United Nations General Assembly.
• Walmart Inc (WMT.N) said that it may hike prices of products if the Trump administration imposes a tariff on Chinese imports, according to a letter the company wrote to U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer two weeks ago and seen by Reuters on Thursday.
Walmart, the world’s largest retailer, in its letter said the tariff would impact prices of everything from food products to beverages and personal care items.
• Japan’s annual core consumer inflation ticked up slightly in August but remained distant from the central bank’s 2 percent target, suggesting that monetary policy will stay ultra-loose for the time being.
The nationwide core consumer price index (CPI), which excludes fresh food costs, rose 0.9 percent in August from a year earlier, matching a median market forecast and accelerating slightly from a 0.8 percent gain in July.
• Expansion of global growth "may have peaked" according to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
In its latest interim outlook released Thursday, the OECD has projected global growth to settle at 3.7 percent in both 2018 and 2019. That level sits just below levels recorded prior to the financial crisis ten years ago.
The recently appointed chief economist of the OECD, Laurence Boone, told CNBC's Charlotte Reed on Thursday that the world economy on the whole was "hitting a plateau" and there was evidence of increased divergence between different economies.
• The latest inter-Korean summit may pave the way for a second meeting between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and President Donald Trump, but it didn't advance the goal of denuclearization, experts warned.
Analysts pointed out that the declaration signed at the summit's conclusion lacked details on the Pyongyang's uranium-based nuclear program and a timeline for dismantlement.
• Prime Minister Theresa May’s Brexit proposals were declared dead by the British media on Friday after what they cast as a humiliation at the hands of European Union leaders at an informal summit in Salzburg.
After a dinner of Wiener schnitzel in Salzburg, EU leaders said they will push for a Brexit deal next month but warned May that if she will not give ground on trade and the Irish border by November they are ready to cope with Britain crashing out.
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• CRUDE OIL TECHNICAL ANALYSIS
Crude oil prices pulled back to retestformer resistance in the 70.15-41 area, now recast as support. A daily close back below it targets rising trend support in the 65.69-67.50 zone. Alternatively, a push above the next layer of resistance marked by the chart inflection point at 72.88 paves the way for a challenge of defining support-turned-resistance in the 75.00-77.31 region.
• Oil futures inched up on Friday amid concerns over supply as U.S. sanctions on Iran’s crude exports loom, although calls by U.S. President Donald Trump for lower oil prices dragged.
International benchmark Brent crude for November delivery LCOc1 was up 26 cents, or 0.33 percent, at $78.96 a barrel by 0647 GMT.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude for October delivery CLc1 was up 7 cents, or 0.10 percent, at $70.39 a barrel.
Reference: Reuters, CNBC, Daily FX
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