Global FX DATA:

• • • ASIAN MARKET
      
      Most Asian stock markets retreated on Friday after China allowed its yuan currency to slide further, stoking concerns Beijing’s currency management could become the next flash point in a fierce trade conflict with the United States.
       
    • GOLD
      
      Gold prices eased for a sixth straight session on Friday, hovering near a one-year low hit in the previous session, as the dollar traded close to a one-year high.
       
  • • OIL
      
      Crude prices rose on Friday but were set to drop for the week as concerns about oversupply and lower demand due to a possible economic slowdown caused by the trade conflict between the United States and China, the world’s two biggest oil users.                                               
    • INDIA
      
      Indian authorities will be able to seize assets of fugitives accused of crimes involving sums over 1 billion rupees ($14 million), under a bill approved by the lower house of parliament on Thursday.                                                                    
    • RUPEE
      
      The Indian rupee hit a record low of 69.13 per dollar in early trade on Friday, tracking weakness in the yuan with traders monitoring the domestic stock market for further direction.
       
    • CRYPTO CURRENCY
      
      Cryptocurrencies prices were mixed on Friday, with Bitcoin trading slightly below the $7,500 mark after a rally earlier this week.

    • CHINA
      
      Major state-owned Chinese banks were seen selling dollars in both onshore and offshore foreign exchange markets on Friday, three traders said, in an apparent attempt by authorities to prevent the Chinese currency from sinking too rapidly.

    • SINGAPORE
      
      A Singaporean company official has been charged in court for allegedly supplying luxury goods to North Korea in violation of U.N. sanctions, Singapore’s Straits Times newspaper reported on Friday.

    • NORTH KOREA
      
      North Korea’s economy contracted at the sharpest rate in two decades in 2017, South Korea’s central bank estimated on Friday, in a clear sign international sanctions imposed to stop Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile programmes have hit growth hard.

    • JAPAN
      
      Japan’s annual core consumer inflation quickened slightly in June but the rise was due largely to recent gains in oil costs with prices of other goods barely picking up, a setback for the Bank of Japan’s mission to get inflation to 2 percent.

    • BREXIT
      
      British Prime Minister Theresa May will tell the people of Northern Ireland on Friday that her Brexit plan is the best way to avoid a hard border with Ireland, standing firm against critics in her own party.

    • US
      
      U.S. lawmakers have reached an agreement that puts a measure to strengthen oversight of foreign investment from countries such as China into a must-pass defense policy bill, Representative Robert Pittenger’s office said on Thursday.
       

    • ARGENTINA
      
      A record wheat harvest expected in Argentina this year could arrive just in time to jumpstart the ailing South American economy in the fourth quarter, after growth has been hit by low investment, high inflation and a soy crop devastated by drought.

    • COMBODIA
      
      Three of the groups approved to monitor Cambodia’s election have close ties to Prime Minister Hun Sen, one headed by his son and the other two led by a man who was appointed by the Southeast Asian country’s strongman ruler as a “goodwill ambassador”.