• The dollar held firm on Wednesday, having rebounded from 6-1/2-month lows against its major peers helped by a rise in U.S. Treasury yields, while the yuan eased after Moody's cut its sovereign rating on China due to concerns over the country's soaring debt.
The dollar index held steady against a basket of six currencies at 97.321 after bouncing 0.4 percent the previous day.
China's offshore yuan slipped in knee-jerk reaction but the overall response was limited. The yuan fell to 6.8901 per dollar, down by 0.1 percent, before pulling back to 6.8841 for a loss of about 0.05 percent.
• Moody's Investors Services downgraded China's long-term local and foreign currency issuer ratings on Wednesday, citing expectations that the financial strength of the world's second-biggest economy would erode in the coming years.
• Soldiers will be deployed to key sites in Britain to boost security as the country raised its terror threat to the highest level of "critical" following a suicide attack in Manchester that killed 22 people, including children.
Police on Tuesday said they believed British-born Salman Abedi, aged 22, carried out Britain's deadliest bombing in nearly 12 years and Prime Minister Theresa May said another attack could be imminent.
• An unidentified object that flew across the border from North Korea on Tuesday was most likely to have been a balloon carrying propaganda leaflets rather than a drone, the South Korean military said on Wednesday.
South Korea fired warning shots at the object as it crossed the border, and it disappeared from radar.
• Confidence among Japanese manufacturers receded in May for the first time in nine months after hitting a decade-high level April, a Reuters survey found, showing guarded optimism in a nascent export-led economic recovery.
• Oil prices rose on Wednesday, supported by confidence that an OPEC-led output cut aimed at tightening supply would be extended to all of 2017 and the first quarter of next year.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures CLc1 were at $51.64 a barrel, up 17 cents, or 0.33 percent.
Brent futures LCOc1 rose to $54.34 per barrel by 0652 GMT, up 19 cents, or 0.35 percent, from their last close.
Reference: Reuters
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