• The dollar stood firm in Asia on Thursday and bond yields spiked after super-strong U.S. jobs data made a rate hike a near certainty, while oil struggled to find its footing after U.S. stockpiles swelled past all expectations.
• Centrist Emmanuel Macron would come out ahead of far right leader Marine Le Pen in the first round of France's presidential election before going on to win a runoff vote against her, a Harris Interactive poll showed on Thursday.
Macron would win 26 percent of the vote in the April 23 first round followed by Le Pen with 25 percent, the poll showed, the second so far to give the popular former economy minister a first round lead.
While Le Pen's score was unchanged from the last time the poll was conduced two weeks ago, Macron's surged six percentage points after he unveiled his campaign manifesto and veteran centrist Francois Bayrou gave him his support.
• China has granted preliminary approval for trademarks linked to Donald Trump, documents on China's state trademark office show, giving the U.S. President and his family protection were they to develop the "Trump" brand in the market.38
• China's producer price inflation accelerated to its fastest pace in nearly nine years in February and by more than expected as prices of steel and other raw materials extended a torrid rally, boosting profits for industrial companies worldwide.
Consumer inflation, however, cooled more than expected to its slowest pace since January 2015, leaving some analysts puzzled about the strength of the broader economy.
The producer price index (PPI) jumped 7.8 percent in February from a year earlier, compared with a 6.9 percent increase in January, the National Statistics Bureau (NSB) said on Thursday.
China's consumer inflation rate slowed to 0.8 percent in February from a year earlier as food prices fell following the long Lunar New Year celebrations. The CPI for January and February combined rose 1.7 percent.
• U.S. shale oil producers are plotting ambitious production growth outside the red-hot Permian Basin in Texas, widening a resurgence that could confound OPEC's strategy to tighten global supplies.
• Oil prices climbed on Thursday after sharp losses the session before, buoyed by strong compliance with touted international production cuts, although a surge in U.S. crude inventories continued to drag.
Kuwait's oil minister said on Wednesday that OPEC's compliance with the cuts had exceeded targets, standing at 140 percent in February, while non-OPEC members' compliance was 50-60 percent.
International Brent crude futures were up 42 cents, or 0.79 percent, at $53.53 per barrel at 0637 GMT. They ended the last session down 5 percent at $53.11 a barrel, hit by a record buildup in U.S. inventories.
U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures gained 32 cents, or 0.64 percent, to $50.6 a barrel. WTI plummeted 5.38 percent to $50.28 per barrel in the previous session, marking its lowest since December.
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