Global FX TESTING DATA:

• • • Asian markets
      
      

      Asian shares touched a 10-year high on Thursday after the U.S. Federal Reserve expressed optimism about the economy, virtually cementing the case for a year-end rate hike as investors awaited the formal nomination of the next head of the central bank.

    • GOLD
      
      
      Gold prices edged up in Asia on Wednesday with the upcoming Fed meeting expected to hold steady and investors cautious ahead of nonfarm payroll data at the end of the week.
       
    • OIL
      
      Oil prices edged up on Thursday as U.S. crude inventories fell despite a rise in production, while outside the United States an OPEC-led supply cut continued to tighten the market.
       
    • ENGLAND
      

      The Bank of England looks set to raise interest rates for the first time in more than 10 years on Thursday, despite economic growth appearing weaker than before any other increase in borrowing costs in the past 20.

       

    • JAPAN
      
      Japan is shaking off currency gains that typically punish its stocks, enticing foreign investors including Goldman Sachs Group Inc and BlackRock Inc, which are pumping billions of dollars into the country’s equities.

    • INDIA
      
      An explosion at an Indian power plant killed 20 people and injured up to 100 in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh on Wednesday, authorities said, in one of the country’s deadliest industrial accidents in years.
       
    • CHINA
      
      China will lower tariffs on imported consumer products and step up bank financing to support imports, vice commerce minister Wang Bingnan told reporters on Thursday.
       
    • MAYANMAR
      
      Myanmar’s de facto leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, visited areas hit by conflict in the western state of Rakhine on Thursday for the first time since attacks by militants from the Rohingya Muslim minority two months ago sparked a refugee crisis.
       
    • MEXICO
      
       Wearing black clothing and skeletal face paint, dozens of women marched in downtown Mexico City on Wednesday to commemorate the growing number of women murdered and pressure the government to put an end to what they say is the rampant impunity fueling it.