• In the broader currency market, the dollar strengthened against a basket of currencies to trade at 101.57, compared to its last close at 101.18.
The pound traded at $1.2050, nearly flat, as of 8:26 a.m. HK/SIN on Tuesday.
The yen traded at 113.91, strengthening from levels above 116 to the dollar in the previous week on safe haven demand.
• In her speech, May is expected to outline plans for the United Kingdom's plans to exit the European Union. On Monday, the British pound fell to three-month lows, following local media reports that suggested May will announced a "clean" and "hard" Brexit, pulling the country from the European market and the European customs union, in exchange for the ability to control immigration laws and leave the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice.
• "The PM is expected to walk a fine line between providing enough information on the government's intentions, without necessarily showing too much of Britain's negotiating hand ahead of official discussions with the EU," said Rodrigo Catril, a currency strategist at the National Australia Bank, in a note.
• Media have reported that May, due to speak later on Tuesday, will lay out plan to exit the European Union that would see Britain lose access to the bloc's single market.
• The International Monetary Fund on Monday said the U.S. economy would grow faster than previously expected in 2017 and 2018 based on the incoming Trump administration's tax and spending plans, but it kept its global growth forecasts unchanged due to weakness in some emerging markets.
Updating its World Economic Outlook, the IMF forecast overall global growth at 3.4 percent for 2017 and 3.6 percent for 2018, unchanged from October. That compared to 3.1 percent in 2016, the weakest year since the 2007-2009 financial crisis.
It estimated a modest fiscal stimulus under President-elect Donald Trump would push U.S. gross domestic product growth to 2.3 percent in 2017, a gain of 0.1 percentage point on the last forecast, and to 2.5 percent in 2018, up 0.4 percentage point.
• OPEC Secretary-General Mohammed Barkindo forecast on Monday that stability would return to oil markets this year while price hawk Venezuela said it hoped its crude basket would rise to $70 in coming months.
Reference: Reuters, CNBC
Thai
Eng