Global FX TESTING DATA:

• • • ASIAN MARKET
      
       Asian shares edged higher on Tuesday, approaching record highs, while the yen stole the currency spotlight and jumped after the Bank of Japan’s slight reduction to its bond purchases reminded investors that it will eventually normalise policy.
       
    • GOLD
      
      Gold prices inched down on Tuesday amid expectations for more U.S. interest rate hikes this year.The dollar hit a more than one-week high against a basket of other major currencies pressuring gold.
       
    • OIL
      
      U.S. oil prices hit their highest since 2015 again on Tuesday as speculators bet on further price rises amid OPEC-led production cuts and a dip in American drilling activity, though some warned the rally could run out of steam.
       
    • CHINA
      
      Huawei Technologies said on Tuesday that its flagship smartphone Mate 10 Pro will be sold in the United States through the open channel and not by U.S. carriers.“We remain committed in this market now and in the future. U.S. customers need a better choice, and as a leader in technology and innovation, Huawei is prepared to fill this need,”
       
    • JAPAN
      
      Speculation the Bank of Japan may slow its monetary stimulus this year gripped the currency market on Tuesday after the central bank trimmed the amount of its purchases of Japanese government bonds.
       
    • ITALY
      
      Some 200 members of one of Italy’s most infamous mafia groups were arrested in an operation in Italy and Germany.A statement from the para-military Carabinieri police said the operation had dismantled a major clan of the ‘Ndrangheta organised crime group, which is based in the southern Calabria region.
       
    • PHILLIPINE
      
      The Philippines will make a diplomatic protest to China, which it described as reneging on a promise not to militarize artificial islands in the busy South China Sea waterway, the southeast Asian nation's defense minister said on Monday.
       
    • IRAN
      
      A tanker carrying Iranian oil that collided with a Chinese freight ship in the East China Sea was still on fire on Tuesday morning, the Chinese government said, as dozens of rescue boats struggled to control the blaze for a third day.

    • CRYPTOCURRENCY
      
      A cybersecurity company said it has found software that appears to install code for mining cryptocurrency and sends any mined coins to a server at a North Korean university, the latest sign that North Korea may be searching for new ways to infuse its economy with cash.

    • SOUTH KOREA
      
      South Korea said on Tuesday it will not seek to renegotiate a 2015 deal with Japan aimed at resolving the sensitive issue of “comfort women” forced to work in Japan’s wartime brothels.Japan and South Korea, who share a bitter history that includes Japan’s 1910-45 colonisation, are central to global efforts to rein in North Korea’s nuclear and missile programmes.