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• The safe-haven Japanese yen briefly blipped higher on Monday as investors reacted to news China had cancelled trade talks with the United States just as the latest round of tariffs are set to take effect.

The trade-exposed Australian dollar went the other way, taking an early hit after China also summoned the U.S. ambassador in Beijing and postponed military talks in protest against a U.S. decision to sanction a Chinese military agency.

President Donald Trump’s second round of 10 percent tariffs covering $200 billion of Chinese exports come into effect later on Monday.

The early currency moves came in very thin conditions with Tokyo on holiday and were mostly reversed as the morning wore on. The dollar was just a shade easier at 112.54 yen, having been as low as 112.28 at one stage.

The euro held at $1.1745, with dealers reporting some relief that Chancellor Angela Merkel’s ruling coalition resolved a dispute over Germany’s scandal-tainted spymaster on Sunday, ending a threat to the six-month-old government.

The dollar was steady against a basket of currencies at 94.214 as investors look ahead to an almost certain rate hike from the Federal Reserve on Wednesday.

• A run of upbeat U.S. economic data has also led markets to price in a much greater chance of a move in December as well, which should give the currency a fatter rate advantage over its competitors.

• British Prime Minister Theresa May on Friday acknowledged that talks with the European Union had reached an impasse after the bloc’s leaders had rejected her plans.

• Opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn said on Sunday he would back a second Brexit referendum if his Labour Party votes to pursue the move, heaping further pressure on May.

• Sterling was last at $1.3077, far below last week’s top of $1.3297.

• Prime Minister Theresa May’s Brexit proposals seem to have no life left in them and the government and European leaders need to look at what room for movement there is in negotiations, a senior pro-EU lawmaker from her Conservatives said on Sunday.

At a summit in Austria on Thursday, EU leaders rejected May’s “Chequers” plan, saying she needed to give ground on trade and customs arrangements for the UK border with Ireland.

• British opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn said on Sunday he would back a second Brexit referendum if his Labour Party votes to pursue the move, heaping pressure on Prime Minister Theresa May, whose plans for a divorce deal with the EU have hit an impasse.

• Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government expects the impact of a no-deal Brexit on the labor market in Europe’s biggest economy would be “relatively small”, the German newsmagazine Der Spiegel said on Saturday.

• The European Central Bank should speed up its exit from “crisis-mode” monetary policy, ECB policymaker Ewald Nowotny said on Sunday, reiterating his hawkish line about the timing of potential rate hikes.

• The United States is optimistic about finding a way forward in its trade dispute with China, but it does not have a date scheduled for further talks as it assesses Beijing’s response to the latest round of tariffs, a senior White House official said on Friday.

• China summoned the U.S. ambassador in Beijing and postponed joint military talks in protest against a U.S. decision to sanction a Chinese military agency and its director for buying Russian fighter jets and a surface-to-air missile system.

It added that China’s military reserved the right to take further countermeasures, without giving further details.

Ministry spokesman Wu Qian said China’s decision to buy fighter jets and missile systems from Russia was a normal act of cooperation between sovereign countries, and the United States had “no right to interfere”.

• The value of China’s trade with North Korea in the January-to-August period tumbled 57.8 percent from a year earlier to $1.51 billion, Chinese customs data showed on Sunday.

• Japan is mulling a bilateral trade agreement with the United States that would lower tariffs on U.S. agriculture imports in exchange for avoiding higher tariffs on Japanese autos, the Nikkei newspaper said on Saturday.

• Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government expects the impact of a no-deal Brexit on the labor market in Europe’s biggest economy would be “relatively small”, the German newsmagazine Der Spiegel said on Saturday.

• A year after Donald Trump threatened to “totally destroy” North Korea in his first speech at the United Nations, the U.S. president will return to the podium in New York this week to tout diplomatic efforts that have reduced the risk of war.

But even if Trump’s rhetoric at the annual United Nations General Assembly is expected to differ sharply from his 2017 address in which he mocked North Korean leader Kim Jong Un as “Rocket Man” on a “suicide mission,” some U.S. officials and analysts say Pyongyang has yet to take concrete measures to show it is prepared to give up a nuclear arsenal that threatens the United States.

• Oil prices were up slightly in heavy, seesaw trading on Friday, giving back most earlier gains after news that major producers would consider additional supply a day after U.S. President Donald Trump again blasted the cartel.

Investors grappled with whether the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and non-OPEC producers will offset a shortfall from Iran once U.S. sanctions go into full force Nov. 4. Major producers are scheduled to gather in Algeria on Sunday.

• Global benchmark Brent crude LCOc1 settled 10 cents higher at $78.80 a barrel. U.S. light crude CLc1 rose 46 cents to $70.78 a barrel, more than $1 below the session high of$71.80.

U.S. crude rose 2.5 percent in the week and Brent posted a 0.7 percent weekly gain.

• On Thursday, Trump linked American support for Middle Eastern countries to oil prices and again urged OPEC to lower prices. His tweet, the coming OPEC meeting and concerns over looming sanctions on Iran made for jittery trading on Friday.

Reference: Reuters