· The dollar held steady in Tuesday’s holiday-thinned trade, shrugging off upbeat Japanese economic data as market participants pondered about next year’s potential catalysts.
The euro inched down 0.1 percent to $1.1869 EUR=. The single currency gave up some ground last week after Catalan separatists won a regional election, deepening Spain's political crisis in a sharp rebuke to Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy and European Union leaders who backed him.
Against the yen, the dollar was almost flat on the day at 113.30 JPY=.
The dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six major rivals, edged down slightly to 93.278 .DXY.
· Bitcoin extended its recovery in holiday-thinned trading on Tuesday, rising 10 percent to be up more than a third from last week’s lows of below $12,000.
Bitcoin, the world’s biggest and best-known cryptocurrency, fell nearly 30 percent at one stage on Friday to $11,159.93 and, despite a late recovery, had its worst week since 2013. At 0445 GMT on Tuesday, it was quoted around $15,049 on the Luxembourg-based Bitstamp exchange.
· China’s financial hub of Shanghai will limit its population to 25 million people by 2035 as part of a quest to manage “big city disease”, the cabinet has said.
· South Korea predicted on Tuesday that North Korea would look to open negotiations with the United States over its weapons programs next year and pursue at least some rapprochement with Seoul in an optimistic government outlook for 2018.
· South Korea exports likely rose for a 14th straight month in December, wrapping up the year with an upbeat tone as global demand for memory chips and petroleum goods from Asia’s third biggest exporter continued.
In a Reuters poll, 10 economists saw exports expanding 10.3 percent from a year earlier, picking up some pace after November’s 9.5 percent gain.
· Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda said on Tuesday it was important to scrutinize whether economic expansion was leading to excessive risk-taking in financial markets.
“In the current recovery phase, there are no signs of excessively bullish expectations in asset markets and financial institutions’ behavior. But financial developments warrant close attention,” he said in a speech delivered at a meeting of business lobby Keidanren.
Kuroda also said the BOJ would maintain its “powerful” monetary support for the economy with inflation still distant from its 2 percent target.
· Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said on Tuesday that he wanted companies to raise wages by 3 percent or more in next year’s wage negotiations.
“We must sustain and strengthen Japan’s positive economic cycle next year to achieve our long-standing goal of beating deflation,” Abe said in a speech at a meeting of business lobby Keidanren.
“For that, I’d like to ask companies to raise wages by 3 percent or higher next spring,” he said.
· There's little reason to expect oil prices to extend gains through the first quarter of 2018, energy strategists have told CNBC.
The prospect of rising U.S. shale production, subdued price movements and intensifying geopolitical risks is likely to offset a rally in prices at the start of next year, the analysts said.
Harry Colvin, director and senior economist at Longview Economics, told CNBC in a phone interview that he was "pretty bearish" over the price of oil over the next three months.
Oil prices have recovered well over a third of their value since hitting 2017 lows in June. The gains are largely due to the global supply cuts implemented by OPEC and non-OPEC producers at the start of the year.
· Oil prices were stable on Tuesday, with Brent crude lingering near 2015 highs on the back of an outlook for healthy demand amid ongoing production cuts led by OPEC and Russia.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures CLc1 were at $58.52 a barrel at 0650 GMT, up 5 cents from their last settlement.
Brent crude futures LCOc1, the international benchmark for oil prices, were at $65.25 a barrel, unchanged from their last close, but near the $65.83 per barrel briefly on Dec. 12 - the highest since June 2015.
Reference: Reuters, CNBC
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