• A slide in U.S. bond yields pressured the dollar against the yen on Monday, while the euro struggled for traction after suffering significant losses at the end of last week on renewed concerns about the upcoming French elections.
Markets, already nervous over the possibility of a win for far-right, anti-European Union candidate Marine Le Pen, were jolted after two French hard-left candidates late on Friday said they were discussing cooperation in their bid for the country's presidency.
The dollar was little changed at 113.090 yen JPY=, not far from 112.620, its lowest since Feb. 9 touched on Friday.
• Cleveland Federal Reserve President Loretta Mester said on Monday she would be comfortable raising interest rates at this point if the economy kept performing the way it did.
• China's central bank made a net cash injection via open market operations for the third consecutive day today in an effort to ease a cash strain.
The People's Bank of China conducted 170 billion yuan (US$24.7 billion) of reverse repos, a process by which the central bank purchases securities from banks through bidding with an agreement to sell them back in the future.
• Oil prices rose on Monday but the gains were limited as investors gauged whether an increase in U.S. drilling rigs and record stockpiles would undermine efforts by producers to cut output and bring the market into balance.
Brent futures LCOc1 were up 17 cents at $55.98 a barrel at 0616 GMT, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude CLc1 was up 15 cents at $53.55. Both contracts earlier fell slightly in quiet trading.
Reference: Hong Kong Standard, Reuters
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