•The euro and yen steadied against the dollar on Thursday, after U.S. officials said President Donald Trump was expected to delay implementing tariffs on imported cars and parts by up to six months to give trade negotiators more time.
The euro was 0.1% higher at $1.1208, having bounced overnight from a one-week low of $1.1178. The single currency was initially hit as Italy’s Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini criticized European Union rules for the second day.
“Long term prospects for the euro are not particularly bright, given the region’s soft economic fundamentals. But the news on the auto tariff delay is helping the euro establish support at the $1.1200 threshold,” said Shin Kadota, senior strategist at Barclays in Tokyo.
The dollar edged down 0.1% to 109.485 yen.
The dollar index against a basket of six major currencies was nearly flat at 97.542 after posting modest gains the previous day.
•President Donald Trump on Wednesday declared a national emergency over threats against American technology, the White House said.
The move, done via executive order, authorized the Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, in consultation with other top officials, to block transactions that involve information or communications technology that “poses an unacceptable risk to the national security of the United States.”
Following the order, the U.S. Department of Commerce announced the addition of Huawei Technologies and its affiliates to the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) Entity List, making it more difficult for the Chinese telecom giant to conduct business with U.S. companies.
Huawei claimed Thursday that attempts to restrict the Chinese tech giant from doing business stateside will cause the U.S. to fall behind in the development of next-generation mobile networks — and could raise “other serious legal issues.”
•The latest polling for the European Parliament elections shows that Nigel Farage's Brexit Party is likely to gain the most seats in the UK, as establishment parties are forecast to lose their majority across the European Union.
The vote takes place in the UK on Thursday 23 May, with the Europe-wide results expected on the evening of Sunday 26 May.
At a continent level, the European Union's established centre-Left and centre-Right blocs are likely to lose their combined majority in the elections.
The result is likely to be a more fragmented European Parliament, with the centre-Right EPP and centre-Left S&D forecast to lose their combined majority.
•Chinese internet giants like Alibaba and Tencent are unlikely to be targeted in the same manner as telecommunications giant Huawei amid escalating trade tensions between Beijing and Washington, an analyst told CNBC on Thursday.
First and foremost, the deterioration of U.S.-China relations will likely hurt Chinese firms that compete with American companies, according to Gil Luria, director of research at D.A. Davidson.
“The focus on Huawei appears to be motivated by concerns regarding secrecy and intellectual property, but Huawei is also a main competitor to many American telecom equipment companies,” Luria told CNBC.
“Companies that are domestic Chinese focused such as Alibaba and Tencent are less likely to be directly targeted,” he said, adding that the former’s sales in the U.S. are negligible and that outgoing Chairman Jack Ma has done a “masterful job of positioning himself as friendly to the U.S.”
Still, he said, those firms would be unable to escape the secondary effects of a slowing Chinese economy — which has partially been pressured by heightened American tariffs.
•Oil prices pushed higher on Thursday for a third day in a row, as fears of supply disruptions amid heightened tensions in the Middle East overshadowed an unexpected rise in U.S. inventories.
Brent crude futures were at $72.18 a barrel at 0612 GMT, up 41 cents, or 0.6%, from their last close. Brent closed up 0.7% on Wednesday.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were at $62.40 per barrel, up 38 cents, or 0.6%, from their previous settlement. WTI closed up 0.4% in the last session.
Analysts said oil was drawing support from the risk of conflict in the Middle East, with helicopters carrying U.S. staff from the American embassy in Baghdad on Wednesday out of apparent concern about perceived threats from Iran.
While a gain in U.S. inventories overnight is helping to cap prices, so too is uncertainty about whether OPEC and other producers will maintain into the second half of the year supply cuts that have boosted prices more than 30% so far in 2019.
Reference: Reuters, CNBC, Telegraph
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