In Asian Equity Markets stocks traded mixed early on Thursday, as Japanese markets shrugged off weakness seen overnight on Wall Street. Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 rose 0.46 percent, paring some of the steeper gains seen in the morning. Pharmaceuticals declined as shares of Takeda Pharmaceutical fell 6.15 percent. The Japanese company said Wednesday that it was at “a preliminary and exploratory stage” regarding a possible bid for U.K. drugmaker Shire. Elsewhere, the Kospi was off by 0.04 percent as technology stocks, banks and manufacturing names traded in negative territory.

In Currency Markets the US dollar eased against the yen on Thursday, losing some momentum after hopes of detente in East Asia provided the spark for its largest daily gain in six months the previous session. The dollar fell 0.3 percent to 106.52 yen, giving back some gains after having surged 1.43 percent on Wednesday, its biggest rise since Sept. 11 of last year. The euro rose 0.2 percent to $1.2329. On Wednesday it had lost 0.75 percent and pulled away from the previous day’s five-week high of $1.24765. The euro has been weighed down recently by comments from some European Central Bank officials suggesting the ECB is in no hurry to wind back its stimulus given the spectre of low inflation.

In Commodities Markets oil prices rose on Thursday as the producer cartel OPEC and other suppliers look set to continue withholding output for the rest of the year and potentially into 2019. U.S. WTI crude futures were at $64.62 a barrel, up 24 cents, or 0.4 percent, from their previous settlement. Brent crude futures were at $69.81 per barrel, up 28 cents, or 0.4 percent. Commercial U.S. crude inventories rose by 1.6 million barrels in the last week to 429.95 million barrels, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) said on Wednesday. U.S. crude oil production hit a record, at 10.43 million barrels per day (bpd). That puts the United States ahead of top exporter Saudi Arabia. Only Russia pumps out more, at 11 million bpd.

In US Equity Markets stocks closed lower after a rocky session on Wednesday as gains in consumer staples and healthcare were offset by a sharp decline in Amazon shares and a continuing slide in technology stocks. The S&P 500 lost 0.29 percent, to 2,605 and the Nasdaq Composite fell 0.85 percent, to 6,949.23. Countering those losses were gains for consumer staples, real estate, telecom, and healthcare. Online retailer Amazon.com was down as much as 6.7 percent, losing more than $53 billion in market value after a report that President Donald Trump indicated he wanted to rein in the company. The stock later pared its loses to end the day down 4.4 percent.

In Bond Markets the margin between short- and long-dated U.S. Treasury yields shrank on Wednesday as quarter-end buying for portfolio re-balancing and safe-haven demand due to growing stock market losses pushed the benchmark 10-year yield to seven-week lows. On the other hand, weak demand at a $29 billion auction of seven-year notes, the final leg of this week’s record high $294 billion in government debt supply, propelled shorter maturity yields higher. The yield on 10-year Treasury notes was down 1.5 basis points at 2.773 percent. It hit a seven-week low of 2.743 percent earlier. Two-year Treasury yields were up 0.4 basis point at 2.282 percent.