• The euro firmed to one-month highs against the dollar in Asian trading on Monday, after some European Central Bank policymakers raised the possibility of hiking interest rates before bond purchases end.
The euro was up 0.2 percent at $1.0699 EUR=, after rising as high as $1.0701, its highest level since Feb. 9.
The dollar edged down 0.2 percent against its Japanese counterpart to 114.66 yen <JPY=>, below Friday's high of 115.50 yen, which was the highest since Jan. 19.
• Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has called on Congress to raise the United States debt limit "at the first opportunity."
In a letter to congressional leaders dated Wednesday, Mnuchin said the Treasury will stop issuing certain state and local securities on March 15, when the most recent suspension of the debt limit expires. Mnuchin said the Treasury will likely start taking "extraordinary measures" the next day, when the U.S. will be at its statutory limit, to prevent default.
• The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has warned the Netherlands it will “pay the price” for a diplomatic stand-off after a Turkish minister was blocked from visiting her country’s consulate in Rotterdam and tensions between the two countries exploded in angry protests.
• Prime Minister Theresa May is set to begin exit talks by the end of the month, kicking off Britain's most complex set of negotiations since the end of World War Two. The outcome will shape Britain's political and economic future.
Ahead of the start of negotiations, which could be triggered as early as Tuesday, a committee of lawmakers warned it would be a serious dereliction of duty if the government failed to plan for the possibility of not reaching an exit deal.
• The risk of a steep slide in China's economy has reduced, the head of a government research center said on Sunday, adding the country had moved through an "L-shaped" pattern of slowing to now "horizontal" growth.
Li Wei, the director of the Development Research Center of the State Council, China's cabinet, said many positive economic signs were emerging domestically and internationally, and the risk of a large slide in economic growth had "clearly lowered".
• Japan's core machinery orders unexpectedly fell in January from the previous month and dipped the most in five months, adding to worries about whether recent signs of economic recovery will be sustainable.
Core machinery orders fell 3.2 percent in January, sharply undershooting the economists' median estimate of a 0.5 percent increase, Cabinet Office data showed on Monday. That followed a rebound in December, when core orders rose 2.1 percent.
• The Bank of Japan is expected to keep monetary policy steady on Thursday and stress that inflation is nowhere near levels that justify talk of withdrawing massive stimulus, as weak consumer spending casts a cloud over an otherwise healthy pick-up in the economy.
Many BOJ officials say they are more confident about prospects of economic recovery as exports and factory output benefit from improving global demand.
But they see more to fret about on consumer prices, as budding growth in some sectors is not generating inflation.
• Oil prices dropped to their lowest in three months on Monday despite OPEC efforts to curb crude output, dragged down as U.S. drillers kept adding rigs.
Brent crude <LCOc1> had fallen 39 cents, or 0.8 percent, to at $50.98 per barrel by 0553 GMT, its lowest since Nov. 30. It closed the previous session down 1.6 percent at $51.37. U.S.
West Texas Intermediate crude (WTI) <CLc1> declined 45 cents, or 0.9 percent, to $48.04 a barrel, also the lowest since Nov. 30.
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