ECONOMY & MARKETS

Traders and fund managers have left crude oil markets in recent months, dropping activity to a seven-year low amid the worst global energy crisis in decades as investors become unwilling to deal with persistently high volatility.

New Zealand's central bank delivered its seventh straight interest rate rise on Wednesday and signalled a more hawkish tightening path over coming months to restrain stubbornly high inflation.

Major currencies were holding steady on Wednesday, ahead of another day when central bank policy takes centre stage for traders with a Reserve Bank of New Zealand meeting and the Federal Reserve's minutes from its recent meeting both due.

Oil prices rose on Wednesday, recovering from six-month lows hit the previous day, as a larger-than-expected drop in U.S.

Japanese manufacturers' business confidence improved in August after last month's stall, while service-sector firms' mood rose for a second month to the highest point in nearly three years, the Reuters Tankan poll showed.

Canadian inflation may have peaked, but it remains far too high, Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem said in a newspaper op-ed on Tuesday, after official data showed annual price increases eased to 7.6% in July from 8.1% in June.

Brazil's trade surplus this year is likely to fall short of prior forecasts, according to private economists and an Economy Ministry official, as a spike in the cost of imported fuel and fertilizer offsets strong exports of other raw materials.

The "superminister" tasked with rescuing Argentina's crisis-racked economy needs cash now, and so just days into the job he has launched a charm offensive to win over farm industry titans to access crucial debt forgiveness ahead of a looming deadline.

Britain recorded its biggest rise in foreign workers since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in the year to June, driven overwhelmingly by workers from outside the European Union, official figures showed on Tuesday.

Investors are still bearish but no longer "apocalyptically" so, according to Bank of America's (BofA) monthly survey of global fund managers in August, as hopes rise inflation and interest rates shocks will end in the coming quarters.

The Dow inched higher on Tuesday as results from Walmart and Home Depot lifted the retail sector, while a slide in megacap growth stocks and signs of a slowing global economy weighed on the Nasdaq and the S&P 500.

A sharp rebound in Israel's economic activity and a jump in annual inflation have made a 0.75-point interest rate increase more likely next week, analysts said on Tuesday.

China slashed holdings of U.S. Treasuries for a seventh consecutive month in June, Treasury department data released on Monday showed, with investors closely tracking this measure in the wake of tensions between the world's two largest economies involving Taiwan.

China's central bank cut its interest rates on Monday for the second time this year, but analysts suspect it will do little to spur lending in an economy awash with cash but lacking in consumer demand and business confidence.

The safe-haven U.S. dollar hit a one-week high on Tuesday after weak global economic data, particularly in China, reignited global recession fears and weighed on risk-friendly currencies like the Australian dollar.

The Philippine central bank will follow its surprise July rate hike with a half-point point rise on Thursday and another quarter-point increase in September to catch up with its peers in containing soaring inflation, a Reuters poll forecast.

When Hwang Kwang-jo's factory in Seoul faced a staffing crunch earlier this year after the departure of Nepalese workers and younger locals, he hired a 61-year-old to pick up some of the work.

New Zealand's central bank is expected to deliver its fourth straight half-point rate hike on Wednesday, but most economists see rates peaking below policymakers' forecast after the most aggressive tightening in two decades to tame soaring inflation.

Israel's annual consumer price index (CPI) rose to a higher than expected rate of 5.2% in July, the most since October 2008 and following a 4.4% rate in June, as more aggressive interest rate hikes loom and keep the soaring cost of living centre stage ahead of an election in November.

U.S. stock indexes fell on Monday, mirroring global markets, after weak economic data from China rekindled fears of an economic slowdown in the world's second-largest economy.

Nigeria's annual inflation quickened in July to its highest level since 2005, official data showed on Monday, driven by price rises for food, fuel and clothing.

Walmart Inc and Target Corp kick off retail earnings this week, and what the two biggest U.S.

According to a new study that takes a close look at U.S. states with the most businesses experiencing supply chain pressures, a big part of the problem is domestic.

China's fuel product exports will rebound in August to near the highest for the year so far after Beijing issued more quotas in June and July, although broader curbs are set to cap shipments at seven-year lows for 2022, analysts and traders said.

China's refined fuel exports are likely to sink in 2022 to the lowest in seven years as the country seeks to maintain ample domestic supplies while refinery output posts a rare decline.

Hedge funds slashed their long dollar positions and bet harder on a flatter yield curve, two macro trades that have come up trumps.

Thailand's economy expanded at the fastest pace in a year in the second quarter as eased COVID-19 restrictions boosted activity and tourism, but multi-year high inflation and China's slowdown remain a drag on the nascent recovery.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Monday instructed his ministers to draw up additional steps to cushion the economic blow from rising living costs in a package due to be compiled next month.

The Bank of England will deliver another bumper 50 basis points (bps) increase to borrowing costs next month but then slow the pace to a more regular 25 basis point rise in November before pausing, a Reuters poll forecast.