In Asian Equity Markets indexes climbed on Thursday after last session’s rally stalled late in the trading day. Nikkei 225 index jumped 1.42 percent after closing barely in positive territory in the last session. Financials, automakers and manufacturers traded higher: Toyota rose 2.74 percent, Fanuc Manufacturing gained 3.96 percent and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group was up 1.12 percent. Technology shares were mixed: Nikon advanced 1.44 percent while Nintendo slid 0.94 percent. In Seoul, the Kospi gained 1.04 percent after finishing in negative territory on Wednesday. Samsung Electronics gained 1 percent, appearing to shrug off news that its chairman, Lee Kun-hee, was suspected of tax evasion. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index rose 0.72 percent. Among blue chips, HSBC traded higher by 0.75 percent and tech giant Tencent advanced 1.64 percent.

In Currency Markets the dollar hovered above its recent lows against major rivals on Thursday, benefiting from the euro’s weakness and higher U.S. yields but capped by concerns about recent equity market volatility.  Against a basket of six major rival currencies, the dollar was steady on the day at 90.242, not far from Wednesday’s session high of 90.40, its highest in two weeks. The euro edged up 0.1 percent to $1.2278 but remained not far from its overnight low of $1.2246 and a far cry from last month’s 3-year high of $1.2538. The dollar was slightly higher on the day against its Japanese counterpart at 109.37 yen. The New Zealand dollar, meanwhile, skidded to four-week lows after the Reserve Bank of New Zealand kept interest rates steady at a record low on Thursday. The kiwi was down 0.5 percent at $0.7204 after falling as low as $0.7192 earlier, its lowest since Jan. 11.

In Commodities Markets oil prices eased on Thursday, taking Brent crude to a 2018 low, as increasing U.S. output undermined OPEC efforts to tighten markets, although a North Sea pipeline outage and record Chinese imports offered support. Brent crude futures were at $65.39 per barrel, down 12 cents, or 0.2 percent, from the previous close. Brent slipped to its lowest for the year at $65.12 a barrel early in the session. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were at $61.60 a barrel. That was down 19 cents, or 0.3 percent, from the last settlement, though still some way off its $60.10 2018 low on Jan. 2. Overnight, crude oil prices settled sharply lower after data showed US domestic oil supplies rose for the second straight week while domestic production rose further above 10 million barrels per day.

In US Equity Markets stocks ran out of steam on Wednesday after an early gain, in a sign that investors are still worries by the market’s recent retreat and wary more fallout is to come. The S&P 500 lost 0.50 percent, to 2,681.66 and the Nasdaq Composite fell 0.9 percent, to 7,051.98. Technology shares fell 1.4 percent, with Apple down 2.1 percent, while energy declined 1.7 percent as oil prices were down. Gains for the industrials and financials sectors supported the market. Wynn Resorts climbed 8.6 percent after casino mogul Steve Wynn resigned as the chief executive following sexual misconduct allegations. Snapchat owner Snap jumped 47.6 percent after it reported surging growth in users and revenue in its latest quarter.

In Bond Markets  U.S. Treasury prices fell on Wednesday after the Treasury Department sold new 10-year notes to soft demand and the U.S. Senate reached a budget deal, boosting expectations of stronger economic growth. The U.S. government had to pay higher rates to auction $24 billion in 10-year notes, the second sale of $66 billion in coupon-bearing supply this week. The high yield on the sale was around 1 basis point above where it had before the auction. Benchmark 10-year notes were last down 21/32 in price to yield 2.845 percent, up from 2.766 percent on Tuesday. The government will sell $16 billion in 30-year bonds on Thursday.

Today’s inflection points

• 10:00 GMT+1 EUR ECB Publishes Economic Bulletin
• 11:45 GMT+1 EUR ECB’s Praet speaks in Frankfurt
• 13:00 GMT+1 GBP BoE minutes
• 13:00 GMT+1 GBP BoE government bond purchases (APF)
• 13:00 GMT+1 GBP BoE Bank rate
• 14:00 GMT+1 USD Fed’s Harker (non-voter, hawkish) speaks
• 14:30 GMT+1 USD Initial jobless claims
• 15:00 GMT+1 USD Fed’s Kashkari (non-voter, dovish) speaks