• The dollar eased versus the yen on Thursday as a recent rally tied to bets on another US interest rate hike this year lost steam
The US dollar eased 0.2 per cent against the yen to 111.15, pulling away from a three-week high of 111.79yen reached on Tuesday.
• Senate Republicans would repeal most of the taxes that pay for Obamacare, roll back expanded Medicaid coverage under the healthcare law approved in 2010, reshape its subsidies, give states wider latitude to opt out of its regulations and eliminate federal funding for Planned Parenthood, under a draft bill reported by the Washington Post on Wednesday.
• The U.S.-led international coalition fighting Islamic State in Iraq has not carried out strikes in the area where the historic mosque of Mosul is located, its spokesman said on Wednesday.
Islamic State had accused American planes of destroying the medieval Grand al-Nuri mosque and its famous leaning minaret in the northern Iraqi city.
• Russian hackers targeted 21 U.S. state election systems in the 2016 presidential race and a small number were breached but there was no evidence any votes were manipulated, a Homeland Security Department official told Congress on Wednesday.
Jeanette Manfra, the department's acting deputy undersecretary of cyber security, testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee.
• Large amounts of business investment is being postponed because of uncertainty over the future outcome of Brexit negotiations so Britain should seek clarity as early as possible over a transition arrangement, finance minister Philip Hammond said.
British finance minister Philip Hammond said he was confident Prime Minister Theresa May will strike a deal with Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party to gain support for her minority government.
• A North Korean diplomat on Wednesday raised the possibility of the hermit regime holding bilateral talks with the United States.
"Under certain circumstances, we are willing to talk in terms of the freezing of nuclear testing and missile testing," North Korea Ambassador to India Kye Chun Yong said during an interview on India's TV network WION.
That said, North Korea first wants to see the U.S. "completely stop" large-scale joint military exercises with South Korea, temporarily or permanently, according to Kye. And he said the North would agree to a temporary stop of exercises too.
• Bank of Japan Deputy Governor Kikuo Iwata on Thursday dismissed the need to raise interest rates any time soon, stressing that the economy still needs support from "powerful" monetary easing with inflation distant from the central bank's 2 percent target.
• Japan's government on Thursday raised its overall view of the economy for the first time in six months, reflecting a gradual pick-up in private consumption and underscoring its confidence that an export-led recovery is broadening.
Japan's economy grew for a fifth consecutive quarter in January-March, led by exports, although wage growth and household spending remain stubbornly weak despite a tightening job market.
• Oil turned lower on Thursday after posting gains earlier in the session as traders look ready to test new lows for crude prices with worries persisting over a global glut.
Brent crude futures were down 15 cents at $44.67 a barrel at 0715 GMT, after spending much of the Asian trading day in positive territory. They fell 2.6 percent in the previous session to their lowest since November.
U.S. crude futures were down 14 cents $42.39 a barrel, after also spending much of the day trading higher. On Wednesday, they settled down at $42.53, after touching their lowest intraday level since August 2016.
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