• All the events scheduled for Thursday are fraught with risk for investors, but testimony by former FBI chief James Comey posed a potential danger to Trump's economic agenda, and perhaps even his presidency.
• "The market is especially focused on Comey's testimony," said Hikaru Sato, a senior technical analyst at Daiwa Securities.
• Reports suggest Comey plans to reveal conversations in which Trump allegedly pressured him to drop his investigation into former National Security Adviser Mike Flynn, who was fired for failing to disclose conversations with Russian officials.
• Risk-off sentiment pushed government bond prices up and yields lower, while propping up gold and the Japanese yen.
• The United Arab Emirates has banned people from publishing expressions of sympathy towards Qatar and will punish offenders with a jail term of up to 15 years, the UAE-based newspaper Gulf News and pan-Arab channel Al-Arabiya reported on Wednesday.
• Armed men launched two attacks in Iran's capital on Wednesday morning, killing a guard at the parliament and wounding several people in the Mausoleum of Ayatollah Khomeini in southern Tehran, state media reported.
Lawmaker Elias Hazrati said three assailants, one with a pistol and two with AK-47 assault rifles, raided parliament, according the state television website.
• Oil prices dipped on Wednesday as fuel markets remained oversupplied, although tension in the Middle East and falling U.S. inventories lent some support.
Brent crude futures were at $49.95 per barrel at 0710 GMT, down 17 cents, or 0.3 percent, from their last close.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were at $48.02 per barrel, also down 17 cents, or 0.3 percent, from the previous close.
Reference: Reuters
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