• The dollar was a touch lower on Wednesday, its modest advance from the previous day bogging down as investors started to take a wait-and-see attitude ahead of Friday's U.S. jobs report.
The dollar index , which hit 102.260 on March 2, inched down 0.1 percent to 101.740. It gained about 0.15 percent overnight, when the dollar was buoyed by declines in European peers.
• China unexpectedly posted a rare trade deficit in February as imports surged far more than expected to feed a months-long construction boom, driven by commodities from iron ore and copper to crude oil and coal.
Imports in yuan-denominated terms surged 44.7 percent from a year earlier, while exports rose 4.2 percent, official data showed on Wednesday.
That left the country with a trade deficit of 60.63 billion yuan ($8.79 billion) for the month, the General Administration of Customs said.
• The state of Hawaii said it will ask a federal court on Wednesday for an emergency halt to President Donald Trump's new executive order restricting travel from six Muslim-majority countries, becoming the first state to challenge the ban in court.
• President Donald Trump plans to meet with a group of infrastructure business leaders at the White House on Wednesday, a person briefed on the meeting said.
During his presidential campaign, Trump said he would push for a $1 trillion infrastructure program to rebuild roads, bridges, airports and other public works projects.
• Japan's economy grew faster than initially reported in the final quarter of 2016, with an upward revision in business spending and a jump in investment growth bolstering activity.
Asia's second-largest economy grew at an annualized rate of 1.2 percent in the October-December quarter, revised up from a preliminary reading of 1.0 percent growth, according to new data from the Cabinet Office.
However, the revised figure still undershot market estimates: The median estimate in a Reuters poll of economists had pegged growth at 1.6 percent.
• U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will make his first trip to Asia next week and meet with senior officials to discuss North Korea's recent missile tests and U.S. economic and security interests in the region.
He will arrive in Japan on March 15, continue on to South Korea on March 17 and visit China from March 18-19.
· Oil futures fell in Asian trade on Wednesday after industry data pointed to a potential ninth straight week of inventory builds, renewing concerns about an oversupply of oil despite output curbs by OPEC and non-OPEC members.
As of 0740 GMT, brent futures were down 23 cents, or 0.4 percent, at $55.69, after settling down 0.2 percent in the previous session.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude fell 29 cents, or 0.6 percent, to $52.85 a barrel, after ending the previous session down 0.1 percent.
Reference: Reuters, CNBC
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