• The dollar edged higher on Monday as last week’s spike in U.S. bond yields supported the currency, with sterling -- battered by political headwinds -- the biggest loser.
Sterling was down 0.7 percent at $1.3087, dropping away from an eight-day peak of $1.3229 scaled on Friday on better-than-expected British industry data.
The dollar index against a basket of six major currencies was 0.25 percent higher at 94.617, following a 6-basis-point rise in long-term U.S. Treasury yields on Friday.
• A Federal Reserve official said on Monday he expects to back an interest rate hike next month despite caution over the low-inflation "conundrum," since the U.S. central bank needs to prepare for any future economic shock.
• Hong Kong signed free trade and investment agreements with the 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations on Sunday, in what one of the Chinese territory’s officials called a “loud and clear” vote against rising regional trade protectionism.
The pacts, which conclude nearly three years of talks, are expected to take effect on January 1, 2019, at the earliest. They aim to bring “deeper and bolder” integration of market access with the bloc, said Edward Yau, Hong Kong’s commerce and development secretary.
• Late Saturday, the crypto-currency plunged 15 percent from nearly $6,500 to a low of $5,507, before intermittently shooting back up to near $6,400, according to CoinDesk. Bitcoin last traded near $6,060, down about 4 percent on the day.
Trading in a U.S. stock index is typically halted after such an extreme drop, not to mention repeated swings higher or lower. However, more than 120 "cryptofunds" have emerged to invest in bitcoin, other digital currencies and related business projects, according to financial research firm Autonomous Next.
• Forty members of parliament from Prime Minister Theresa May’s Conservative Party have agreed to sign a letter of no-confidence in her, the Sunday Times newspaper reported.
That is eight short of the number needed to trigger a party leadership contest, the mechanism through which May could be forced from office and replaced by another Conservative.
May has been struggling to maintain her authority over her party since a snap election on June 8 which she called thinking she would win by a wide margin but instead resulted in her losing her parliamentary majority.
Reference: Reuters
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