ECONOMY & MARKETS

The Indian government is not averse to a weaker rupee in line with global market fundamentals, a senior official told Reuters, at a time when the central bank's intervention has tried to moderate the depreciation in the Indian currency.

A Federal Reserve dead-set on fighting inflation is leaving little hope that this year's rocky markets will end anytime soon, as policymakers signal rates rises faster and higher than many investors were expecting.

The U.S. dollar pushed to a fresh two-decade high versus major peers on Thursday, propelled by the Federal Reserve's hawkish outlook for interest rates and Russian President Vladamir Putin's mobilisation of more troops for the war in Ukraine.

Brazil's central bank on Wednesday chose to keep interest rates unchanged, pausing an aggressive monetary tightening cycle even as U.S.

The Bank of England looks set to raise interest rates by at least half a percentage point on Thursday in a bid to tame inflation that is just off a 40-year high, against a backdrop of a tumbling currency and a free-spending government.

The Bank of Japan is expected to keep interest rates ultra-low on Thursday and reassure markets that it will continue to swim against a global tide of central banks tightening monetary policy to combat soaring inflation.

The rouble recovered from two month lows and Russian stocks pared losses on Wednesday after earlier plunges triggered by President Vladimir Putin's move to order Russia's first military mobilisation since World War Two.

Earlier this year, markets were complacent as Russia massed troops on the Ukraine border.

U.S. existing home sales dropped for the seventh straight month in August as affordability deteriorated further amid surging mortgage rates and stubbornly high house prices, though the pace of decline moderated from prior months.

Barbados has issued the world's first government bond with a clause allowing payments to be suspended in the event of another global pandemic, a move expected to attract interest from dozens of other countries savaged by the COVID-19 crisis.

The pound touched a new 37-year low against the dollar on Wednesday after Russian President Vladimir Putin's accusation of "nuclear blackmail" by the West boosted the safe-haven dollar.

Britain's budget deficit was bigger than expected in August, a reminder of the difficult financial backdrop for new finance minister Kwasi Kwarteng as he readies his first "mini-budget" fiscal update to parliament.

European shares traded in a narrow range on Wednesday as investors digested Russia's first mobilisation since World War Two while they waited for the U.S.

A quadrillion yen is lying idle with Japanese households, ready to be shipped overseas when yields abroad turn more attractive, and that moment could arrive as soon as this week.

With prices falling like a stone as central bank tightening goes into overdrive, buying bonds may appear confused - but perhaps that very confusion is good enough reason in itself.

The Federal Reserve is expected on Wednesday to lift interest rates by three-quarters of a percentage point for a third straight time and signal how much further and how fast borrowing costs may need to rise to tame a potentially corrosive outbreak of inflation.

Expectations of more Federal Reserve tightening and economic worries are weighing on a rebound in consumer discretionary stocks, though some investors believe the sector will outperform other areas of the market if growth begins to wobble in coming months.

Japan will not intervene to stem the yen's decline, said just over half of economists polled by Reuters, though a fifth said weakening beyond 150 per U.S.

The Bank of Japan's dovish deputy governor Masayoshi Amamiya ranked top among candidates to become the bank's next head in a Reuters poll of economists, a sign he remains the market's favourite to succeed incumbent Governor Haruhiko Kuroda.

India's government is in no hurry to push inflation - now hovering near 7% and eight-year highs - back to the central bank's 4% medium-term target, for fear that aggressive rate hikes could hurt economic growth, two sources with direct knowledge of the matter said.

In the last five months, the greenback has gained roughly 10% against the yuan due to a combination of monetary tightening in the U.S. and monetary loosening up in China.

Oil prices slid on Wednesday, extending the previous day's losses, as investors braced for another aggressive interest rate hike from the U.S.

A top European industry group warned on Wednesday that firms were losing confidence in China and that its standing as an investment destination was being eroded, citing its "inflexible and inconsistently implemented" COVID policy as a key factor.

Europe's problems in sourcing oil and gas this winter after a dispute with Russia may be exacerbated by a new crisis in the market where prices are already red-hot: a liquidity crunch that could send them spiralling higher still.

Inflation in Canada remains "too high" but is headed in the right direction, a Bank of Canada official said on Tuesday, adding that the central bank will do whatever is needed to bring price increases back to target.

JPMorgan Chase & Co Chief Executive Jamie Dimon plans to tell Congress that the U.S. economy faces "storm clouds," according to prepared testimony.

Wall Street's main indexes were set to open lower on Tuesday as investors positioned themselves for new economic projections and another large interest rate hike by the Federal Reserve this week to quell decades-high inflation.

The latest turmoil in major sovereign debt markets is far from over as bond strategists in a Reuters poll expected yields to stay elevated well into next year, with risks firmly skewed towards their moving higher than currently predicted.

Sweden's central bank raised interest rates on Tuesday by a larger-than-expected full percentage point to 1.75% and warned of more to come over the next six months as it sought to get to grips with surging inflation.