• The dollar slipped against the yen on Wednesday on concerns about rising tensions between the United States and North Korea while the Canadian dollar held firm after the nation's central bank chief backed an interest rate increase.
The dollar shed 0.3 percent in early trade to fetch 112.95 yen JPY=, slipping further from Monday's 1-1/2-month high of 113.48.
Moves were minor with the euro steady at $1.1360 and the dollar index down 0.1 percent at 96.124.
• Investors awaited minutes of the Fed's June meeting to gauge how committed it was to hiking rates gain this year and any detail on plans to wind back its massive balance sheet.
• Markets imply around a 60 percent chance of another rate rise in December.
• The Canadian dollar rose Tuesday for a sixth session in a row, a streak that has been fuelled by an increasingly hawkish tone from the Bank of Canada amid mounting expectations it will raise its key interest rate next week.
The loonie was ahead 0.21 of a cent to an average trading price of 77.27 cents US. The currency has gained nearly two cents US since June 23.
Tuesday’s bump in the loonie came after Bank of Canada governor Stephen Poloz hinted yet again in an interview with a German newspaper that the central bank may be ready to move on the benchmark rate, which has been locked at 0.5 per cent for two years. The next rate announcement is set for July 12.
• Bank of England official Ian McCafferty stuck to his view that interest rates should rise now in a newspaper interview published on Tuesday, saying that the economy has not slowed by as much as predicted.
• The European Union has approved a 5.4 billion euro ($6.1 billion) state bailout of Italy's fourth-largest lender, Monte dei Paschi di Siena (BMPS.MI), taking the total amount of Italian taxpayer funds deployed to rescue banks over the past week to more than 20 billion euros.
• Oil prices flirted with both positive and negative territory on Tuesday, hovering around $50 a barrel on tentative signs that a persistent rise in U.S. crude production may be slowing.
The international benchmark LCOc1 settled down 7 cents at $49.61 per barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures CLc1 were trading up 1 cent at $47.08 a barrel.
• North Korea said on Wednesday its newly developed intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) can carry a large nuclear warhead, triggering a call by Washington for global action to hold Pyongyang accountable for its pursuit of nuclear weapons.
A spokeswoman for the Pentagon said it had concluded that North Korea test-launched an ICBM, which some experts now believe had the range to reach parts of the mainland United States.
The Pentagon condemned the missile test and said it was prepared to defend the United States and its allies against the growing threat from North Korea.
Reference: Reuters, The star
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