• With the U.S. economy at full employment and inflation set to hit the Federal Reserve's 2-percent target next year, the U.S. central bank needs to keep raising rates gradually to keep the economy on an even keel, a Fed policymaker said Monday.
"If we delay too long, the economy will eventually overheat, causing inflation or some other problem," San Francisco Fed President John Williams said in remarks prepared for delivery to the University of Technology Sydney.
• The Japanese Yen was a little weaker against the US Dollar Monday following the release of a Bank of Japan report which showed that any exit from extraordinarily loose monetary policy remains a way off.
The BoJ’s “Summary of Opinions” from June 15 and 16’s policy conclave found rate-setters in broad agreement that the most effective way to hit the 2% annualized inflation target was to continue current policy
• A proposed merger between two banks in southern Japan will likely be delayed for a second time over monopoly concerns, sources said, highlighting the difficulty regional banks face in trying to consolidate to survive the shrinking market.
Last year, the largest banking group on the island of Kyushu, Fukuoka Financial Group Inc, said it wanted to buy local rival Eighteenth Bank. It intended to merge it with Shinwa Bank, which it already controlled.
• Italy began winding up two failed regional banks on Sunday in a deal that could cost the state up to 17 billion euros ($19 billion) and will leave the lenders' good assets in the hands of the nation's biggest retail bank, Intesa Sanpaolo.
• Ifo data better than expected all round. $EURUSD trades at 1.1196
• Theresa May will today spell out her plans to allow EU citizens to continue living in the UK after Brexit.
The prime minister will state that all European citizens living in the UK before the date that Britain leaves will be offered "settled status" to remain living and working here, as long as British citizens living in the EU are granted the same rights.
EU citizens will be offered rights "almost equivalent to British citizens," the Brexit secretary David Davis told the Andrew Marr show.
• The leader of Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), Arlene Foster, has returned to London and hopes to finalise a deal to prop up British Prime Minister Theresa May's government, she told Sky News on Monday.
A spokesman for the DUP confirmed Foster was in London and would meet May on Monday at 0930 GMT.
• Britain said it will maintain duty-free access to its markets once it has left the European Union for goods from nearly 50 developing countries including Bangladesh, Sierra Leone and Haiti.
The government said around 48 countries would continue to benefit from tariff-free exports on all goods other than arms and ammunition to the UK and that once it had left the EU in 2019 it would explore options to expand trade relations further.
• The Russian government is suspected of being behind a cyber-attack on parliament that breached dozens of email accounts belonging to MPs and peers.
Although the investigation is at an early stage and the identity of those responsible may prove impossible to establish with absolute certainty, Moscow is deemed the most likely culprit.
The network affected is used by every MP including Theresa May, the prime minister, and her cabinet ministers for dealing with constituents.
• Oil prices rose more than 1 percent early on Monday on a weaker dollar, but another rise in U.S. drilling activity stoked worries that a global supply glut will persist despite an OPEC-led effort to curb output.
Brent crude futures were up 50 cents, or 1.1 percent, at $46.04 per barrel at 0215 GMT.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were up 44 cents, or 1.0 percent, at $43.45 per barrel.
Reference: Reuters, DailyFx, CNBC, The Guardian
Thai
Eng