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• In currency markets, the dollar traded against a basket of rivals at 100.51 at 6:45 HK/SIN time. The dollar/yen traded at 108.62, firmly below the 110 handle it traded at a week ago.

The dollar dipped to a five-month low against the yen early on Monday as rising tensions over North Korea kept the safe-haven Japanese currency in demand.

The euro was a shade lower at $1.0608, having spent the previous session in a very tight range.

The dollar index against a basket of major currencies was down 0.1 percent at 100.470.

• San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank President John Williams said on Tuesday the U.S. central bank should raise interest rates three or four times this year, and begin to trim the Fed's multitrillion-dollar balance sheet in late 2017.

• KIM Jong-un has ordered 600,000 residents in North Korea’s capital to evacuate the city amid rumours the hermit state is preparing to carry out a nuclear blast, according to reports.

Adding to geopolitical concerns, the U.S. military said on Thursday that it dropped the largest non-nuclear device it has ever used in combat on a network of caves and tunnels used by Islamic State in eastern Afghanistan.

• China said on Friday tension over its neighbour North Korea had to be stopped from reaching an "irreversible and unmanageable stage", as a U.S. aircraft carrier group headed for the region.

• U.S. Vice President Mike Pence will travel to South Korea on Sunday in what his aides said was a sign of the U.S. commitment to its ally in the face of rising tensions over North Korea's nuclear program.

• Pence's Seoul stop kicks off a long-planned 10-day trip to Asia - his first as vice president - and comes amid concerns that Pyongyang could soon conduct its sixth nuclear test.

• A North Korean missile "blew up almost immediately" on its test launch on Sunday, the U.S. Pacific Command said, hours before U.S. Vice President Mike Pence landed in South Korea for talks on the North's increasingly defiant arms program.

The failed launch from North Korea's east coast, ignoring repeated admonitions from major ally China, came a day after North Korea held a grand military parade in its capital, marking the birth anniversary of the state founder, displaying what appeared to be new long-range ballistic missiles.

The North has warned of a nuclear strike against the United States if provoked. It has said it has developed and would launch a missile that can strike the mainland United States but officials and experts believe it is some time away from mastering the necessary technology, including miniaturizing a nuclear warhead.

In Pyongyang, there was a festive atmosphere at a flower show, with families out, taking pictures with North Korean-made smart phones. There was no mention of the test failure by the KCNA state news agency.

• France's presidential election race looked tighter than it has all year on Friday, just over a week before voting opens as a new opinion poll put the four leading candidates only three percentage points apart.

The two highest scorers in the first round on April 23 will go through to contest a run-off on May 7. The race has been tightening for weeks, even though centrist Emmanuel Macron remains favourite.

According to the poll by Ipsos-Sopra Steria for Le Monde newspaper, Macron and far-right leader Marine Le Pen will tie on 22 percent each in the first round next Sunday, with the far-left's Jean-Luc Melenchon and conservative Francois Fillon on 20 and 19 percent respectively.

• Oil prices on Wednesday halted their longest streak of gains so far this year, as pressure from concerns over rising U.S. crude production outweighed support from the first weekly decline in U.S. crude supplies in a month.

May West Texas Intermediate crude CLK7, -0.32% lost 29 cents, or 0.5%, to settle at $53.11 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices on Tuesday had settled at their highest level in about six weeks, marking a sixth straight session climb, amid expectations that major oil producers will agree to extend their output cuts into the second half of the year.

June Brent crude on London’s ICE Futures exchange LCOM7, -0.30% shed 37 cents, or 0.7%, to $55.86 a barrel.

• April 13, Brent crude was higher by 3 cents to settle at $66.89 per barrel while U.S. crude was higher by 7 cents to settle at $53.18. Oil prices had hit a one-month high last Wednesday following news that OPEC could extend output cuts beyond June.