Reuters

A look at the day ahead in European and global markets from Tom Westbrook

Sudden yen rallies and a 5.5 trillion yen ripple in Japan's money markets seem to put us in the midst of another round of intervention. The latest yen surge came in the thin morning of the Asia day, an hour after daybreak in Wellington.

Like Monday, it occurred during low-liquidity trading. Only this time, it did not follow any wild drop in the yen and came instead as... (continue reading...)

HONG KONG (Reuters) - HSBC Holdings said on Thursday it had kept its best lending rate in Hong Kong at 5.875%, after the city's de facto central bank kept unchanged the base rate charged through its overnight discount window, tracking the U.S. Federal Reserve's decision to keep rates steady.

(Reporting by Donny Kwok; Editing by Jamie Freed)

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Standard Chartered PLC posted on Thursday a 5.5% rise in its first-quarter pretax profit, beating estimates, as higher interest rates bolstered earnings at the emerging markets-focused lender.

StanChart, which earns most of its revenue in Asia, said statutory pretax profit in the quarter was $1.91 billion. That compared with $1.81 billion a year earlier and the $1.39 billion average of 13 analyst estimates compiled by the bank.

MANILA (Reuters) - The Philippines' foreign ministry summoned a Chinese diplomat on Thursday to protest Beijing's use of water cannon against Filipino vessels at the disputed Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea.

"The Philippines protested the harassment, ramming, swarming, shadowing and blocking, dangerous maneuvers, use of water cannons, and other aggressive actions of China Coast Guard and Chinese maritime militia," the foreign affairs... (continue reading...)

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese trading house Mitsubishi Corp posted on Thursday a 18.4% fall in net profit for the year ended in March to 964 billion yen ($6.2 billion), missing estimates.

A LSEG poll of analysts had forecast Mitsubishi's net profit for the fiscal year at 979 billion yen.

($1 = 155.9300 yen)

(Reporting by Katya Golubkova; Editing by Jamie Freed)