Currencies

• EUR/USD The dollar fell against the euro for a third day on speculation the Federal Reserve will trail the European Central Bank in tightening monetary policy.
  • The greenback fell to $1.4272 per euro as of 1:52 p.m. in Tokyo from $1.4237 yesterday in New York.


• USD/JPY The U.S. currency weakened versus the yen as the yield premium on the U.S. bonds over Japan's shrunk, curbing the relative allure of the nation's assets.
  • The currency decreased to 81.12 yen from 81.42 yen.


• GBP/USD The U.S. dollar added to its losses against other global currencies during Asian trading hours Wednesday, as regional stocks moved higher, and as some traders said the euro might consolidate after being hit by worries about Greece's debt troubles.
  • The British pound was fetching $1.6277, rising from $1.6246.

Commodities

• Gold prices fell after several large hedge funds, including one controlled by billionaire investor George Soros, disclosed they had slashed their holdings of the precious metal.
  • G Soros Fund Management said late Monday in a securities filing that it sold 99% of its stake, or 4.7 million shares, in exchange-traded fund SPDR Gold Trust in the first quarter.
  • Gold for May delivery settled $10.60, or 0.7%, lower at $1,479.80 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange.

• Oil rose from a three-month low in New York after an industry-funded report showed U.S. gasoline stockpiles dropped and crude inventories at Cushing declined the most since June in the world's biggest consumer of the fuel.
  • Gasoline supplies last week fell 676,000 barrels, the American Petroleum Institute said, while Crude inventories at Cushing, Oklahoma, the delivery point for the benchmark West Texas Intermediate grade, slid 1.5 million barrels, the API said.
  • Crude for June delivery rose as much as $1.09 to $98 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange, and was at $97.95 at 12:11 p.m. Singapore time.

Equities

• U.S. stocks retreated, as a reduced sales forecast at Hewlett-Packard Co. and an unexpected decline in housing starts damped optimism about the economic recovery.
  • Hewlett-Packard, the biggest personal-computer maker, tumbled 7.3 percent.
  • The Standard & Poor's 500 Index declined less than 0.1 percent to 1,328.98 at 4 p.m. in New York.
  • The Dow Jones Industrial Average retreated 68.79 points, or 0.6 percent, to 12,479.58 yesterday.


• European stock retreated for a fourth day for its longest losing streak in two months as a report showed an unexpected drop in U.S. housing starts.
  • The benchmark Stoxx Europe 600 Index dropped 1 percent to 277.28 at the 4:30 p.m. close in London to its lowest level in four week.
  • U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index lost 1.1 percent.
  • France's CAC 40 Index slid 1.2 percent and Germany's DAX Index dropped 1.8 percent.


• Asian stocks rose, driving a regional benchmark index up for the first day in five, amid merger-and- acquisition speculation and after Tokyo Electric Power Co. presented a plan for stabilizing a stricken nuclear-power plant.
  • Tokyo Electric Power rose 2.4 percent as it confirmed plans to cool damaged reactors as early as October.
  • The MSCI Asia Pacific Index advanced 0.9 percent to 135.11 as of 12:51 p.m. in Tokyo.
  • Japan's Nikkei 225 Stock Average gained 0.9 percent and South Korea's Kospi Index climbed 1.3 percent.

Sources: Bloomberg, FT