• The dollar slipped to a more than one-week low against the yen on Wednesday, pressured by worries over possible delays to President Donald Trump’s tax reform plans.
The dollar was down 0.19 percent to 113.78 yen, after having fallen as low as 113.4 yen, earlier in the session.
The dollar index .DXY, which tracks the greenback against six major currencies, was down 0.04 percent at 94.875.
• “I think it is to do with uncertainty surrounding the path towards tax reform,” said Vassili Serebriakov, FX Strategist at Credit Agricole in New York.
“In terms of data, it is very quiet this week. The December (interest rate) hike is fully priced in but there is a lot of uncertainty about next year, especially with the composition of the FOMC,” he said, referring to U.S. central bank’s policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee.
• President Donald Trump's tour of Asia also remained in the spotlight. Trump is expected to discuss issues relating to trade and North Korea with Chinese leaders in Beijing on Thursday. The president also took to Twitter to warn North Korea not to underestimate the U.S., repeating statements he had made when addressing South Korea's National Assembly on Wednesday.
• Banks might start to activate contingency plans and possibly move business away from Britain if there is no clarity on the UK departure from the European Union by next Spring, Bank of England policymaker Ian McCafferty said on Wednesday.
• If the election of Donald Trump as U.S. president was a big catalyst behind a 23 percent rally in the S&P 500 over the past year, Tuesday’s first wide-scale retesting of his agenda with voters could signal the clock is ticking for Republicans to deliver on a range of so-far unkept promises before a much larger ballot showdown next year.
Markets are growing increasingly skeptical Republicans can pull it off.
On Tuesday, Democrats handily won governors’ races in New Jersey and Virginia, picked up more than a dozen seats in the Virginia House of Delegates and nabbed full control of the Washington state Senate.
• Omer Esiner, chief market analyst at Commonwealth FX in Washington, called the election results “a resounding victory for Democrats.”
“It can be viewed as the latest signal of the president’s waning popularity,” Esiner said. “An increasingly unpopular president could give some Republicans the cover they
• Oil prices settled slightly lower on Wednesday after U.S. government data showed rising domestic crude production, a surprise build in U.S. stockpiles and a decline in monthly Chinese crude imports, a triple blow that was offset somewhat by rising tensions in the Middle East.
Brent futures LCOc1 fell 20 cents, or 0.3 percent, to settle at $63.49 a barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude CLc1 fell 39 cents, or 0.7 percent, to settle at $56.81 per barrel.
Reference: Reuters
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