• The U.S. dollar recovered slightly on Friday, but posted its biggest quarterly decline against a basket of rival currencies in nearly seven years after hawkish signals from foreign central banks this week pressured the greenback further.
Investors have ramped-up expectations for tighter monetary policy from the European Central Bank, Bank of England and Bank of Canada after hints from officials this week.
This has made the greenback less attractive, in addition to skepticism that the Federal Reserve would be able to raise interest rates again this year given a recent batch of weak U.S. economic data and doubts that U.S. President Donald Trump could enact his pro-growth agenda.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, declined about 4.6 .DXY percent for the second quarter to mark its steepest quarterly percentage drop since the third quarter of 2010.
The euro accelerated more than 7 percent against the greenback for its biggest quarterly percentage gain since the third quarter of 2010. The euro racked up about 2 percent of its gains and the dollar index posted about 1.6 percent of its losses this week alone. The dollar gained about 1 percent against the Japanese yen over the quarter.
• Qatar faces possible further sanctions by Arab states that have severed ties with Doha over allegations of links to terrorism, as a deadline to accept their demands is expected to expire on Sunday night.
Saudi Arabia and three allies accusing Qatar of supporting terrorism have agreed to a request by Kuwait to extend by48 hours Sunday's deadline for Doha to comply, according to a joint statement on Saudi state news agency SPA.
Qatar's foreign minister will formally give Kuwait's ruler the country's response to demands by Saudi Arabia and other Arab allies that Doha cease its alleged support for terrorism, state news agency QNA said, without indicating what that reply may be.
• Japan and the European Union are on the cusp of a wide-ranging free trade agreement that could help blunt the forces of protectionism sparked by U.S. President Donald Trump's trade policies.
EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom said she was "quite confident" that a broad agreement can be announced at a summit on July 6 with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe as both sides finalize the reduction of tariffs on autos and agricultural goods.
• Oil prices edged up on Monday, supported by the first fall in U.S. drilling activity in months, although rising output from OPEC despite a pledge to cut supplies capped gains.
Brent crude futures added 6 cents or 0.1 percent to $48.83 per barrel by 0137 GMT (9.37 p.m. ET), after jumping 5percent last week for the first gain in six weeks.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures rose 15 cents, or 0.3 percent, to $46.19 per barrel after a more than 7 percent gain last week from depressed levels.
Reference: Reuters
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