• The dollar recovered against the euro in Europe on Thursday after sinking to a 2-1/2 year low following a Federal Reserve rate decision and statement that provoked a bout of selling.
By 0703 GMT, the dollar was roughly steady on the day at $1.1728 per euro, having hit a low of $1.1777 in Asian trading.
• Republican U.S. Senate leaders, struggling to keep a seven-year promise to end Obamacare, turned their focus on Wednesday to passing a slimmed-down "skinny" repeal measure that would throw the issue into negotiations with the House of Representatives.
• U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin urged Congress on Wednesday to raise the federal debt limit before lawmakers start their August recess, to avoid higher interest costs to taxpayers and market uncertainty about a potential default.
However there was little sign Congress would heed Mnuchin's call, at least for the moment. The House of Representatives is due to start its recess on Friday with no hint of movement on the issue, while the Senate is consumed with trying to pass a healthcare overhaul bill.
• U.S. lawmakers reached an agreement on Wednesday paving the way for the U.S. Senate to pass a bill as soon as this week to impose new sanctions on Russia and bar President Donald Trump from easing sanctions on Moscow without Congress' approval.
• Freedom of movement of workers between Britain and the European Union will end when Britain withdraws from the bloc, immigration minister Brandon Lewis said on Thursday.
"Free movement of labor ends when we leave the European Union in spring 2019," Lewis told BBC radio.
"Once we have left the EU, this government will apply its own immigration rules and requirements that will meet the needs of UK businesses, but also of wider society," Interior Minister Amber Rudd said in an article in the Financial Times.
"I also want to reassure businesses and EU nationals that we will ensure there is no 'cliff edge' once we leave the bloc," Rudd said.
• Oil prices were sitting just below eight-week highs on Thursday, buoyed by hopes that a steeper-than-expected decline in U.S. crude oil inventories will reduce global oversupply.
Brent crude futures were down 9 cents, or 0.1 percent, at $50.88 a barrel at 0655 GMT, after rising about 1.5 percent in the previous session.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures were down 8 cents, or 0.2 percent, at $48.67 a barrel.
Reference: Reuters, New York Times, CNBC
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