• The dollar posted its biggest daily percentage rise in more than two weeks on Thursday as investors pared back some short positions in the greenback before a European Central Bank meeting later in the day.
The dollar was trading 0.25 percent higher against a trade-weighted basket of its peers at 95.022 on Thursday, its biggest daily rise since July. 3, according to Thomson Reuters data.
• The Bank of Japan kept monetary policy steady on Thursday but again pushed back the timing for achieving its inflation target, reinforcing expectations it will lag well behind other major central banks in scaling back its massive stimulus programme.
With robust exports and private consumption pointing to a steady though modest recovery, the Japanese central bank slightly raised its growth forecasts and offered a more upbeat view of the world's third-largest economy than last month.
• Benchmark Japanese government bonds were steady on Thursday as the Bank of Japan maintained its monetary policy and trimmed its inflation forecasts.
The 10-year cash JGB yield was flat on the day at 0.070 percent, down from an earlier high of 0.075 percent.
• President Donald Trump's son Donald Trump Jr., son-in-law Jared Kushner and former campaign manager Paul Manafort have been asked to appear before U.S. Senate committees next week to answer questions about the campaign's alleged connections to Russia, officials said on Wednesday.
• Dining on rib-eye steak and peach cobbler with a group of senators, President Donald Trump was cautiously optimistic that Republican efforts to overhaul Obamacare were in good shape.
• The United States and China failed on Wednesday to agree on major new steps to reduce the U.S. trade deficit with China, casting doubt over President Donald Trump's economic and security relations with Beijing.
• Oil prices held steady on Thursday, hanging on to gains made the previous session when falling U.S. crude inventories lifted the market, as analysts offered mixed supply outlooks for the commodity ahead of a key OPEC meeting next week.
Brent crude futures, the international benchmark for oil prices, were at $49.68 per barrel at 0650 GMT, just 2cents down from their last settlement.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were at $47.09 per barrel, 3 cents below their last close.
Reference: Reuters
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