Forex / Asia news

TOKYO (Thomson Financial) - The number of corporate bankruptcies fell 3.1 percent in June from May, following a 24.4 percent surge in the previous month, private research firm Teikoku Databank Ltd said Wednesday.The number of companies that went bankrupt last month fell to 985 compared to the 1,016 recorded in May, which was the largest number of bankruptcies recorded since Teikoku started compiling the data in its current form in April 2005...

MANILA (Thomson Financial) - Philippine Finance Secretary Margarito Teves said Wednesday he remains confident that the government's budget deficit for 2007 would not exceed the targeted ceiling of 0.9 percent of gross domestic product or 63 billion pesos, despite poor tax collections in the first half...

SINGAPORE (Thomson Financial) - Oil prices fell in morning Asian trade Wednesday as the market took a breather after climbing to new 11-month highs.At 11:16 am (0316 GMT), New York's main oil futures contract, light sweet crude for delivery in August, was down 16 cents at 72...

SEOUL (Thomson Financial) - The Bank of Korea (BoK) is expected to raise its benchmark overnight call rate target for July at its monetary policy meeting Thursday in a pre-emptive move designed to clamp down on high liquidity levels that it fears could feed inflationary pressure...

SYDNEY (Thomson Financial) - The US dollar was steady against the yen and slightly firmer against the euro in early Asian trading hours Wednesday after an overnight slump sparked by heightened concerns over the US housing market.The euro set a fresh record high of 1...

BEIJING (XFN-ASIA) - Real retail sales growth in 2007 is projected at 12.8 pct year-on-year, up 0.2 percentage points from 2006, China's State Information Center (SIC), a government think-tank, said in a report published in the official China Securities Journal...

TOKYO (Thomson Financial) - Japan's wholesale goods price index jumped 2.3 percent year-on-year in June, rising for the 29thconsecutive month, the Bank of Japan said on Wednesday.The year-on-year gain was smaller than the market's consensus forecast for a rise of 2...

TOKYO (Thomson Financial) - Japan's current account surplus rose 31.1 percent from a year earlier to 2.134 trillion yen in May, ahead of market expectations, data from the Ministry of Finance showed Wednesday.Economists were looking for a surplus of 1...

NEW YORK (AP) - The euro shot to an all-time high against the U.S. dollar Tuesday on concerns about the American economy that were fueled by discouraging growth forecasts from key U.S. retailers and homebuilders.The British pound, which has been trading around 26-year highs against the dollar, briefly touched $2...

LANSING, Mich. (AP) - For the fifth time since becoming Michigan's governor, Jennifer Granholm will travel overseas to try and bring business back home.Granholm on Tuesday said she will visit Sweden and Germany next month to try and create more jobs in Michigan...

LONDON (Thomson Financial) - The dollar plunged against the euro and the pound after a leading ratings agency warned against the creditworthiness of sub-prime debt.Standard&Poor's said it is putting around 12 bln usd worth of subprime mortgage-backed securities on 'credit watch' with negative implications...

LONDON (Thomson Financial) - The dollar stayed weak ahead of a widely anticipated speech from Federal Reserve governor Ben Bernanke this evening.The US currency came under renewed selling pressure this morning, moving back towards its all-time low against the euro and 26-year low against the pound, with markets positioning themselves for the central bank governor's speech amid a dearth of data in the US and Europe...

KUALA LUMPUR (Thomson Financial) - Bank Negara governor Zeti Akhtar Aziz said Tuesday Malaysia has the capacity to absorb any cut in the gas subsidy as inflation is currently at a "very low" level."We believe that any adjustment in (gas) prices may have an impact on prices but we do not envisage it to be significant if such an adjustment is made...

BEIJING (XFN-ASIA) - China's customs department said the country's imports of crude oil in the first half of 2007 rose 11.2 pct year-on-year to 81.54 mln tons while exports dropped 39.3 pct to 1.82 mln tons.For the month of June alone, imports of crude oil amounted to 14...

LONDON (Thomson Financial) - The dollar came under renewed selling pressure this morning, moving back towards its all-time low against the euro and 26-year low against the pound.With a dearth of data on both sides of the Atlantic, analysts said the markets are positioning themselves ahead of this evening's speech on inflation from the US Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke...

JAKARTA (Thomson Financial) - The International Monetary Fund expects Indonesia's gross domestic product (GDP) growth this year to beat the Fund's initial projection of 6 percent, given strong exports and rising levels of direct investment, IMF Indonesian representative Stephen Schwartz said...

TOKYO (Thomson Financial) - Japanese government bond prices closed narrowly mixed in erratic trading Tuesday, with the selling in reaction to the weak outcome of a new five-year government bond auction mostly running out of steam by the closing bell.The Ministry of Finance auctioned 2...

SINGAPORE (Thomson Financial) - The economy grew at a faster-than-expected year-on-year clip of 8.2 percent for the second quarter to June, on the back of a rebound in manufacturing, with the data suggesting further upside to full year growth estimates for the city state, economists said...

SYDNEY (Thomson Financial) - The US dollar was trading in narrow ranges against other major currencies halfway through Asian trading hours Tuesday as players awaited a speech on inflation by Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke later in the day.At 2...

TOKYO (Thomson Financial) - The lowest accepted price at today's auction of 2.0 trillion yen-worth of five-year Japanese government bonds was 99.70 yen, giving a yield of 1.565 percent, the Ministry of Finance said.Of the successful bids, 52.8425 percent were made at the lowest price, the ministry said...