Global FX DATA:

• • • ASIAN MARKET
      
      Asian shares made early gains on Thursday as upbeat Wall Street earnings supported global investor sentiment, although trade war jitters pushed China’s offshore yuan to a fresh one-year low.
       
    • GOLD
      
      Gold prices dropped on Thursday as the dollar remained near a three-week high. U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell’s comments this week implied increasing interest rates and continued to put pressure on the precious metal prices.
       
  • • OIL
      
      Oil prices on Thursday extended gains from the previous session, buoyed after official data showed that U.S. inventories of gasoline, diesel and heating oil unexpectedly fell last week.                                               
    • INDIA
      
      India’s Bandhan Bank Ltd posted a 47 percent surge in its quarterly profit on Wednesday, helped by higher interest income.                                                                    
    • DOLLAR
      
       The dollar held firm against the yen and other major currencies on Thursday, supported by bullish comments from the U.S. Federal Reserve chairman, which affirmed expectations about the central bank's possible interest rate moves this year.
       
    • CRYPTO CURRENCY
      
       Bitcoin’s rally cooled on Thursday after recording its biggest three-day rally this year and climbed above the $7,500 mark earlier this week, although it remains more than 60% below its all-time high in December.

    • SOUTH KOREA
      
      A South Korean court ruled on Thursday that the government and the operator of the Sewol ferry, which sank in 2014 killing 304 people mostly school children, must compensate the victims’ families.

    • MEXICO
      
      Mexican President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s political party said on Wednesday it would appeal a $10 million fine from the National Electoral Institute (INE) for breaking campaign finance rules.

    • NORTH KOREA
      
      North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s strident rebukes of officials during recent trips to industrial sites were aimed at rallying support at home for his economic drive and convincing outsiders about his willingness to denuclearize.

    • JAPAN
      
       Japan’s exports to the United States fell for the first time in 17 months and Japanese business sentiment soured amid worries about U.S. President Donald Trump’s protectionist trade policies.

    • MALAYSIA
      
      Malaysia will look to negotiate the deferment of a high-speed rail project with Singapore, Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said on Thursday.
       

    • US
      
      A threat by the U.S. government to impose tariffs of up to 25 percent on imported auto parts could hit consumers in unexpected ways: higher repair costs, insurance premiums and even the theft of more cars for their parts, the industry said. U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration has launched an investigation into whether auto imports pose a national security threat and threatened to slap the tariffs on cars from the European Union and elsewhere.
       

    • AUSTRALIA
      
       Australian employment surged by the most this year in June as firms took on more full-time workers, yet the jobless rate held steady as more people entered the labor force in a trend that has curbed much-needed wage gains.
       

    • ECB
      
      The European Central Bank will raise rates in the second half of next year, according to a Reuters poll of economists, who were confident that will be before the next economic downturn.
       

    • FED BANK
      
      The U.S. Federal Reserve should consider formally easing the regulatory framework for U.S. banks that have more than $250 billion in assets but are not global players, a top Fed official said on Wednesday.