Reuters

By Brigid Riley

TOKYO (Reuters) - The dollar held tight ranges against most peers on Thursday as traders awaited key U.S. inflation data for cues on Federal Reserve policy, while the focus on the massive interest rate gap between Japan and the U.S. helped it make some gains on the yen.

Against the Japanese yen, the dollar slowly inched up after it fell more than 3% last week, its biggest weekly percentage drop since early December 2022.

(Reuters) - JPMorgan's Australian arm has been fined A$775,000 ($509,252.50) for allowing suspicious client orders to be placed on wheat futures trading designed to manipulate the market, the country's corporate regulator said on Thursday.

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) said it found J.P. Morgan Securities' failure to identify the suspicious trades to be "careless" and that it should have acted more expeditiously when the... (continue reading...)

By Josh Smith

SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol said on Thursday his government's efforts to improve people's lives had fallen short, as he held a rare news conference to mark his first two years in office.

Yoon also said a new government ministry will be created to address the country's record low birth rate and fast ageing society, calling it a "national emergency."

"We will utilize all available... (continue reading...)

TAIPEI/BEIJING (Reuters) -A U.S. warship sailed through the narrow Taiwan Strait on Wednesday, less than two weeks before Taiwan's new president takes office, prompting an angry denunciation from Beijing.

China claims sovereignty over democratically governed Taiwan, and says it has jurisdiction over the strait. Taiwan and the United States dispute that, saying the Taiwan Strait is an international waterway.

U.S. warships, and occasionally... (continue reading...)

By Laila Kearney

(Reuters) - Oil prices rose in early trade on Thursday as shrinking U.S. crude inventories signalled tighter supply, and amid rising hopes that the Federal Reserve would cut interest rates by the end of the year.

Brent crude futures for July rose 23 cents to $83.81 a barrel by 0033 GMT. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude for June was up 29 cents to $79.28 per barrel.

Crude inventories dropped last week by... (continue reading...)