By Imani Moise
(Reuters) - Wells Fargo & Co (N:WFC) will donate over $400 million toward helping small businesses recover from the coronavirus pandemic, giving away all proceeds from its participation in the Payroll Protection Program.
At least $28 million is earmarked for non-profit community lenders catering to Black entrepreneurs, the bank said.
"The hardest hit business in this are minority owned," president of consumer banking Mary Mack said in an interview.
"If we look at the communities we serve and the intent and spirit of the program, we believe it was to lean in to help those businesses that were perhaps the most fragile."
More than half of all small business owners do not expect to grow revenue over the next 12 months, a Wells Fargo survey found. The pandemic has shuttered Black owned-businesses at twice the rate of small businesses overall.
Other major lenders, including Citigroup Inc (N:C), have made similar pledges not to profit from the government stimulus program meant to help small businesses hard hit by mandatory COVID-19 related shutdowns. But those banks have said they will use some of the fees generated to cover costs associated with quickly rolling out the hulking infrastructure needed to run the program.
As of June, Wells Fargo funded $10.1 billion in PPP loans and focused its participation on smaller business owners, the bank said. Out of 179,000 loans Wells Fargo processed, 84% went to companies with fewer than 10 employees and 60% were under $25,000.
Its average loan size was $56,000, the bank said. That compares with an average loan size of $123,00 at JPMorgan Chase & Co (N:JPM).
Chase and Bank of America Corp (N:BAC) provided 4,258 and 3,345 loans of $1 million or more, compared with Wells Fargo’s 929, according to a Reuters analysis of program data released on Monday.
By Arno Schuetze, Sabine Wollrab and Patricia Uhlig
FRANKFURT (Reuters) - On the night of June 18, Wirecard AG’s new compliance chief stayed up late at his office in the company’s low-rise headquarters in the Munich suburb of Aschheim to pore over the payment firm’s books.
It was James Freis’ first formal day on the job after his start date had suddenly been accelerated by the refusal that morning of Wirecard’s auditors to sign off on the 2019 accounts and the company’s suspension of its chief operating officer. As Freis, a former financial investigator at the U.S. Treasury, scanned the books he was struck by Wirecard’s unusual practice of relying on a third party to hold large sums of money in escrow on behalf of its subsidiaries that are present in countries where it doesn't have its own operating licenses, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.
The evidence that fraud had probably been committed was obvious to anyone with financial market experience, this person said. The next day, Wirecard’s long-time chief executive officer resigned and Freis became interim CEO.
Over the following week, the 49-year old American was involved in a rapid wave of decisions that culminated in Wirecard filing for insolvency, according to people involved in talks on restructuring its debts. In the end, the process left creditors with scant hope of recovering $4 billion they are owed and investors holding shares that were nearly worthless.
Prosecutors are now investigating Wirecard’s other senior managers on suspicion of fraud, breach of trust, false accounting and market manipulation. They have arrested former CEO Markus Braun, have a warrant out for the former chief operating officer and have widened the field of suspects to include all management board members except Freis. No charges have been filed.
Wirecard and its supervisory board chairman declined to comment on events in the week leading up to the company’s insolvency filing and the accounting issues. The company has acknowledged that the funds likely didn’t exist but hasn’t publicly identified who it believes to be responsible. It has said the decision to file for insolvency was because Wirecard was over-indebted and not in a position to meet its financial commitments.
Braun, who has been released on bail, has denied wrongdoing. A lawyer for the former CEO did not respond to a request for comment but has previously declined to comment.
The former chief operating officer, Jan Marsalek, remains at large and his whereabouts are unknown. His lawyer declined to comment. The company fired Marsalek on June 22.
Freis moved to Frankfurt from Washington six years ago to become head of compliance at Deutsche Boerse (DE:DB1Gn), which runs the Frankfurt Stock Exchange.
Wirecard announced Freis’ appointment as Chief Compliance Officer on May 8, ten days after forensic accountants at KPMG had publicly raised red flags about Wirecard’s accounting for the three prior years saying they had been unable to verify the existence either of revenue from the third-party partners or the balances held in escrow.
Freis was in the Bavarian capital ahead of his official July 1 start date to house hunt, when Wirecard issued a surprise statement. On June 18, the company announced that its long-time audit firm EY, previously known as Ernst & Young, could not confirm the existence of 1.9 billion euros ($2.1 billion) supposedly held in trust at two Asian banks - a quarter of its balance sheet.
That evening, Wirecard suspended Marsalek, the COO, and announced Freis would assume his new post with immediate effect.
Freis appeared in a video statement posted by Braun on Wirecard’s website late that night. In the video, Braun introduced the new compliance chief, who nodded awkwardly in acknowledgment. Braun also said in the video that Wirecard may have been the victim of a fraud "of substantial dimensions," without specifying who may have been responsible.
It was that night that Freis spent looking through the company’s books. The next morning, Freis reported his initial findings to the supervisory board, according to the person with knowledge of the matter. Within hours, Braun had resigned.
Freis also personally wrote a corporate statement that disclosed the findings, the person with knowledge of the matter said. The statement, released by the company in the pre-dawn hours of the morning of Monday June 22, said the management board assessed the "prevailing likelihood" that the 1.9 billion euros held in trustee accounts "do not exist.”
EY, which had audited Wirecard for more than a decade, has said it uncovered a sophisticated fraud and reported its findings immediately to the supervisory board. The audit firm declined further comment.
Freis was also under pressure from Wirecard’s lenders. EY's refusal to sign off on the accounts meant that creditors would be able to call in some 2 billion euros in loans. Freis worked over the weekend with Wirecard’s freshly appointed restructuring advisers to get a dialogue going with creditors, according to sources with knowledge of the matter.
Some 15 banks agreed on the Monday to roll over their credit line to Wirecard. But, by Wednesday, it had become clear that a move by Germany's financial regulator, BaFin, to ring-fence Wirecard's banking subsidiary from the rest of the group would tie Freis' hands.
The problem Freis faced, according to a person involved in the talks between Wirecard and its lenders, was that he would be unable to pay the company’s bills if the regulator blocked access to the necessary account at Wirecard Bank.
Freis saw that, even if the loans were rolled over, Wirecard would probably to have to file for insolvency in three to six months, the person involved in the talks said. But by postponing the inevitable, he risked criminal liability, this person added. Delaying insolvency is a criminal offence in Germany. The next day, June 25, Wirecard announced it would file for insolvency.
Freis continues to oversee day-to-day operations at the company while the administrator sells of the remnants of Wirecard.
By Manas Mishra
(Reuters) - A new $1 billion fund backed by 20 drugmakers including Merck & Co Inc (N:MRK) and Pfizer Inc (N:PFE) is aiming to bolster struggling antibiotic companies and sustain a pipeline for new treatments, an industry group said on Thursday.
Antibiotic makers have struggled with anemic investment and bankruptcies, even after the approval of new drugs, as fears of drug-resistant microbes force hospitals to adopt a more conservative approach toward such treatments.
Public health authorities have raised alarms about a looming health crisis, saying deaths from antibiotic-resistant bacteria could dwarf that from the coronavirus pandemic.
The new fund, led by the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers & Associations, has raised nearly $1 billion so far and aims to help shore up investment in smaller biotech companies after several large drugmakers, such as Sanofi SA (PA:SASY) bowed out of the space.
The initiative "gives these biotechs access to the kinds of capabilities that large pharmaceutical companies have, such as manufacturing and regulatory," said Silas Holland, head of external affairs for the fund and director of global public policy at Merck.
An independent scientific panel will review and recommend funding for companies developing promising novel antibiotics, Holland said. The group's goal is to bring two to four new antibiotics to patients within a decade.
The fund seeks to serve as a temporary solution until new legislation can offer a more permanent fix.
"This is intended to help temporarily sustain this pipeline while policymakers put in place incentives," Holland said.
LONDON (Reuters) - British culture minister Oliver Dowden will hold a news conference, a spokesman for Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Thursday, when the government is expected to set out the next stages in its easing of the coronavirus lockdown.
Johnson had said the government would outline the next steps in its plan to reopen the economy this week, with new guidelines for nail bars and gyms expected to be set out.
By Marcela Ayres and Isabel Versiani
BRASILIA (Reuters) - Brazil's central bank is studying recent data showing inflation is somewhat above expectations to see if there is room for a "residual" cut in interest rates, its president Roberto Campos Neto told Reuters.
In an interview late on Wednesday, he said he expected the bank's growth projections to improve as pandemic emergency income relief payments and credit for small and medium companies continued to spur improved growth.
"What I have said is that we have to understand the impact of the growth on inflation," he said when asked if there was still room for a further reduction in the benchmark Selic rate.
"The two tend to go in the same direction, though we understand that we have such a big hiatus that growth is able to return faster without generating a lot of inflation," he said.
On June 17, when it cut the rate by 75 basis points to a record low of 2.25%, the central bank indicated that the space remaining for further monetary stimulus was uncertain and should be small, even with inflation expectations comfortably below the 4% target for this year and 3.75% next year.
"We already have some marginal inflation data, albeit very residual, showing for the first time that it is slightly above expectations," Campos Neto said.
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union's executive said on Thursday that "significant divergences" persisted in its talks with Britain on their new relationship from 2021.
Britain left the EU in January and is in a standstill transition period with the bloc to give the two sides time to forge a new relationship on everything from trade to security.
Negotiations have so far failed to bridge gaps over fisheries and fair competition guarantees, among other issues.
"We are working hard to overcome the significant divergences that remain between us," a spokesman for the European Commission told a daily news conference. "We are working towards an agreement."
Negotiators meet again in Brussels next week after talks this week in London.
By Caroline Spiezio and Tina Bellon
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Several prominent plaintiffs' law firms, known for striking large settlements with companies like German carmaker Volkswagen AG (DE:VOWG_p) and Equifax Inc (NYSE:EFX), were approved for loans that totaled tens of millions of dollars in government aid meant to help small businesses stay afloat during the coronavirus pandemic.
San Francisco-based Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, which has 100 lawyers and bills itself on its website as "among the largest law firms in the United States that only represent plaintiffs" was approved to receive between $2 million and $5 million under the Paycheck Protection Program, according to data released Monday by the U.S. Treasury Department and Small Business Administration.
Steven Fineman, the firm's managing partner, said Lieff Cabraser used the loan to compensate lawyers and staff members and prevent layoffs.
"We applied for a PPP loan at a time when our firm's lawyers and staff were all required to work remotely... and we had no idea how the pandemic would impact our finances," Fineman said in an email.
Fineman declined to comment on Lieff Cabraser's finances, which are not public.
Other prominent plaintiffs' firms that were approved for government aid include Motley Rice, Morgan & Morgan and Bernstein Litowitz Berger & Grossmann, according to a review of the government data by Reuters.
U.S. law firms have been hard hit by the pandemic and nearly 15,000 firms got the green light to receive up to $13.1 billion in federal loans.
Borrowers seeking PPP loans must certify "in good faith" that the aid is necessary after taking into account their business activity and their "ability to access other sources of liquidity."
Private law firms are not required to publicly disclose their finances.Unlike defense firms, which charge clients by the hour, plaintiffs' lawyers in the United States largely work on a contingency basis and receive a cut of the final settlement.
And with many courts shuttered and jury trials on pause, settlements and attorney payouts have been delayed, according to plaintiffs' lawyer Stuart Grant, the managing director of Bench Walk Advisors, a litigation finance group.
Fineman said in an email that the pandemic has also "resulted in corporate defendants being unwilling or unable to settle."
"Like most plaintiff-side firms, our revenue does not come in on a [predictable] schedule, but our expenses must, of course, be paid as they come due," Fineman said.
Two legal industry experts said that plaintiffs' firms have a business model that should enable them to weather financial uncertainty and questioned whether they really needed government aid.
Successful plaintiffs' firms "almost certainly have resources to carry them over when waiting for big settlements," said Herbert Kritzer, a University of Minnesota Law School professor.
Lieff Cabraser, which negotiated a nearly $15 billion settlement with Volkswagen over its diesel emissions scandal in 2016, in January was one of three firms approved to receive fees of up to $40 million for representing truck owners and lessees in litigation against Navistar (NYSE:NAV) International Corp, court records showed.
Leiff Cabraser's Fineman said that the firm was one of three co-leads in that settlement, and that the fees were shared among 25 firms.
Motley Rice, which has been one of the lead firms negotiating settlements worth potentially tens of billions of dollars with drug manufacturers and distributors accused of fueling the U.S. opioid epidemic, applied for at least two PPP loans, totaling up to $10.35 million. Its website lists 108 attorneys.
Joe Rice, co-founder of Motley Rice, said Wednesday that the firm's reason for applying for PPP aid is "fairly obvious, to keep the employees employed."
Morgan & Morgan, an Orlando, Florida-based personal injury firm known for its television ads, applied at least four times, for up to $18 million. Representatives of the firm did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Bernstein Litowitz, which last month was awarded $30.4 million in fees and expenses after it secured a $149 million settlement resolving an investor lawsuit related to Equifax Inc’s 2017 data breach, was approved for between $2 million and $5 million in aid.
Bernstein Litowitz spokeswoman Lisa Olney said Wednesday the firm did not have immediate comment.
NO ONE UNSCATHED
Although plaintiffs' firms may have large cash reserves from settlements, the pandemic has not left them unscathed.
They generally must shell out large sums of money to fund years-long litigation whose outcome is uncertain.
Still, two prominent plaintiffs' lawyers said they saw no reason to apply for taxpayer-funded loans despite the upheaval.
"The very nature of our business is that revenue streams are choppy, and we don't rely on consistent, predictable paid invoices from billing clients," said Paul Geller, a founding partner of plaintiffs' firm Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd.
Mark Lanier, a Texas-based lawyer whose Lanier Law Firm has won several multimillion- and billion-dollar verdicts against companies including Johnson & Johnson (N:JNJ) and Merck & Co (N:MRK), said his firm did not believe it needed free money to keep going.
"Our folks are working fine from home, and we haven't suffered one bit!" Lanier said.
By Geoffrey Smith
Investing.com -- The U.S. releases jobless claims data, a day after posting a new record high for Covid-19 infections. A wary stock market is set to open mixed. Joe Biden makes a keynote speech on economic policy while Donald Trump awaits a Supreme Court ruling on his tax returns. Metals surge - and not just gold - as price data out of China foster hopes about its economic rebound and drive local stocks to a new record. Here's what you need to know in financial markets on Thursday, July 9th.
1. Jobless claims due
The U.S. will release its latest data for initial and continuing jobless claims at 8:30 AM ET (1230 GMT), to a market increasingly concerned about the risk of a fresh downturn due to the pandemic.
Continuing claims had actually ticked up in last week’s figures but are expected to fall by over 300,000 to 18.95 million, while initial claims – which have repeatedly overshot analysts’ expectations in recent weeks – are expected to slow by another 52,000 to 1.375 million.
The release comes as the U.S. reported a new record of over 62,000 fresh cases on Wednesday, nearly 10% above the previous daily record. The Covid Tracking Project recorded over 900 deaths from the disease for the second day running. Johns Hopkins now puts the U.S. death toll at over 132,000, just under a quarter of the global total.
2. Yuan regains 6-handle as deflation fears ease
The Chinese yuan broke through the 7 level against the dollar as the roaring rally in mainland equities continued unabated.
By close of trade in Asia, the yuan was quoted at 6.9845 to the dollar, its lowest since mid-March, on the back of another surge in mainland stock indices. The Shanghai Shenzhen CSI 300 closed up 1.4% and has now risen 17.8% so far this month.
The latest surge came after figures showing a bigger rebound in domestic price trends than expected, allaying fears of deflation in factory gate prices. Producer prices were down only 3.0% on the year in June, after being down 3.7% in May – a figure that now looks likely to mark the short-term bottom. Consumer prices also fell by only 0.1% in June, rather than the 0.5% expected.
3. Stocks set to open mixed; Walgreens, airlines in focus
U.S. stock are set to open mixed with one eye on the jobless claims numbers.
By 6:45 AM ET, the Dow futures contract was down 97 points, or 0.4%, while the S&P 500 futures contract was down 0.3% and the Nasdaq 100 futures contract was up 0.3%.
In the spotlight later will be Walgreens Boots (NASDAQ:WBA), which is set to release its quarterly numbers, as well as airline stocks. United Airlines (NASDAQ:UAL) said it may furlough up to 45% of its workforce, some 36,000 people, by October as a result of the drop in demand for air travel.
Also of note could be General Motors (NYSE:GM) and Fiat Chrysler (NYSE:FCAU) stock, after a judge rejected a GM suit alleging FCA had bribed union officials to get a sweeter deal on pay than its rivals.
4. Biden to speak, Trump to get Supreme Court ruling on tax returns
The Democratic Party’s presidential nominee Joe Biden will deliver a speech outlining some of his key economic priorities.
According to various reports, Biden will talk up “buy American” policies, especially as regards government procurement, while also signalling an expansion of healthcare coverage. There have been few details about his plans on taxes, which have been a major concern for investors in the past.
Biden’s opponent in the presidential election, Donald Trump, is meanwhile set to hear from the Supreme Court on whether his tax returns can be released to Congressional investigators and prosecutors. Trump has refused subpoenas from three House committees controlled by Democrats, as well as Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr.
5. Base metals shine as gold consolidates
Metals continue to post new highs on a cocktail of factors from fears of currency debasement by central banks to mine closures forced by the pandemic.
Gold futures were consolidating, down 0.3%, after hitting 9-year highs earlier in the week, but the world’s two most important base metals – Copper and Aluminum – both rallied on a wave of Chinese bullishness. Aluminum futures in London rose to their highest since March 11, while copper futures hit their highest level since April last year, helped in part by an announcement from Rio Tinto (NYSE:RIO) that it will close a smelter in New Zealand and put other facilities under review.
Copper prices are being squeezed, among other things, by the spread of Covid-19 around Latin America, where many of the world’s biggest mines are located.
By Cheng Leng, Julie Zhu and Engen Tham
BEIJING/HONG KONG/SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Chinese state lenders are revamping contingency plans in anticipation of U.S. legislation that could penalise banks for serving officials who implement the new national security law for Hong Kong, sources at five state financial institutions said.
In worst-case scenarios under consideration by the Bank of China (SS:601988) (HK:3988) and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) (SS:601398) (HK:1398), the lenders are looking at the possibility of being cut off from U.S. dollars or losing access to U.S. dollar settlements, two sources said.
The dollar is the dominant global currency for international payments and central bank reserves.
"We are hoping for the best, but preparing for the worst. You never know how things will turn out," one of the sources said.
Reflecting concern over the erosion of the former British colony's autonomy, the U.S. House and Senate unanimously passed the bill last week. It has yet to be signed into law by President Donald Trump.
The bill calls for sanctions on Chinese officials and others who help violate Hong Kong's autonomy and on financial institutions that do business with them. But it does not spell out what the sanctions would look like.
"There are sanctions in this bill which could be interpreted to prevent a bank from clearing some dollar transactions via U.S. institutions, but unlike other congressional sanctions bills there are not specific provisions mandating it," said Nick Turner, a lawyer specialising in sanctions and anti-money laundering at Steptoe & Johnson in Hong Kong.
He said it remained to be seen whether the law would be used in such a way.
In a milder scenario being looked at by the Agricultural Bank of China (OTC:ACGBF) (AgBank) (SS:601288) (HK:1288), lenders would need to find ways to address the problem of clients blacklisted by the United States, especially those who might face a sudden loss of liquidity, a third source said.
The sources all declined to be named as the planning is confidential. Bank of China, ICBC and AgBank did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment.
LEASING FIRMS TOO
The contingency planning has been initiated by the banks themselves, three of the sources said.
The People's Bank of China and the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission, top financial regulators overseeing country's financial stability and the banking sector, did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment.
The worst-case scenario under consideration by the Bank of China also envisions what would happen in the event of a run on its branches in Hong Kong if customers feared that it would run out of U.S. currency, one of the sources said.
It is also looking at the experience of banks in Iran, the same person said. Iranian banks have been hit from time to time by U.S. sanctions dating back to the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Bank of China, the country's most international lender, had the biggest exposure of the country's big four lenders to the greenback at the end of 2019, with about $433 billion in liabilities.
China's top four banks, which also include ICBC, China Construction Bank (SS:601939) (HK:0939) and AgBank, had a combined 7.5 trillion yuan ($1 trillion) in U.S. dollar liabilities at the end of 2019, annual reports show.
The sources also said that least three state-run leasing firms, including an ICBC unit and CSIC Leasing, are also making contingency plans. Leasing firms are often heavily reliant on dollar borrowing to fund purchases of aircraft, machinery and facilities.
ICBC Leasing and CSIC Leasing did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
PARIS (Reuters) - France will back Spanish Economy Minister Nadia Calvino for the presidency of the Eurogroup of euro zone finance ministers, French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said on Thursday.
"We support Nadia Calvino because she showed her competency during the Eurogroup meetings of recent months, and we support her because we share with Spain the same desire for stronger euro zone integration," Le Maire told journalists.
Euro zone finance ministers are due to vote late on Thursday on the group's presidency, for which Pascal Donohoe of Ireland and Pierre Gramegna of Luxembourg are also candidates.
BEIJING (Reuters) - China must take steps to stabilise foreign trade and support firms to survive the difficult times, the official Xinhua News Agency reported on Thursday, citing comments made by Vice Premier Hu Chunhua.
China would also strive to maintain the stability of supply chains, and actively take part in the restructuring of the global supply chains, Hu said, according to Xinhua.
By Marc Jones
LONDON (Reuters) - European shares were rising again after a two-day wobble on Thursday as China's markets continued their charge, and something between fear and greed propelled gold to a nine-year high.
Chinese stocks set their longest winning streak in two years and the yuan had strengthened past 7 per dollar overnight [.SS], despite rising tension over Hong Kong and the economic uncertainty caused by COVID-19.
It was the Shenzhen blue-chip index's eighth straight day of gains, adding another 1.5% to its 16% surge this month, and pushed Europe in the right direction after some hesitation caused by uninspiring German data.
Also improving risk sentiment was the dollar’s downward momentum – it was at a one-month low against the euro, a three- week low versus the British pound and four-month lows against the Swiss franc.
That was a green light for emerging markets too. MSCI's EM currency index was at a one-month high. Trade- and commodity- related currencies also reacted to China's gains. The New Zealand dollar was at the highest since January and the Aussie dollar at a one-month high.
"We've seen a more generalised view back to riskier assets. The Chinese equity surge has been the poster child for risk-on move across the last few sessions," said Jeremy Stretch, CIBC Capital Markets' head of G10 FX strategy.
Asia's investors have been riding high after a front-page editorial in Monday's China Securities Journal extolling market fundamentals, which was taken as official encouragement to buy stocks.
State-run media warned on Thursday that investors should still pursue rational investments and manage risks, but that didn't rein in the bulls.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.8% and touched a 20-week high. The yuan rose to a four-month high as it broke through the 7-per-dollar barrier.
"Broadly speaking, the Chinese economy is coping better not only with a recovery but also in dealing with the potential of a second wave (of infections)," said National Australia Bank (OTC:NABZY) FX strategist Rodrigo Catril.
"Rightly or wrongly, that market is liking the idea that the yuan can strengthen on the back of equity inflows."
Although China's factory-gate prices fell for a fifth straight month in June, signs of a pickup suggest a slow but steady recovery remains intact.
Elsewhere, German export figures recovered less than expected in May as demand remained subdued despite lockdowns being lifted in large parts of Europe.
They jumped by 9% on the month after diving by 24% in April, but economists had been hoping for a near 14% bounce and the numbers remained almost 27% lower than their pre-crisis level in February, the Federal Statistics office said.
Deutsche Bank (DE:DBKGn)'s chief international strategist, Alan Ruskin, said the yuan enjoyed the "perfect combination" of tight monetary policy, yield advantage and equity demand.
In any case, its rally ignored growing pressure from the West over China's tightening grip on Hong Kong, surging U.S. coronavirus cases and a fresh lockdown of 5 million Australians in Melbourne.
Australia's benchmark ASX 200 index rose 1% and Japan's Nikkei rose 0.6%. The Australian dollar rose 0.2% to $0.6995, but - perhaps indicating a cap on exuberance - it was unable to break past resistance at $0.70.
U.S. Treasuries were not sold into the rally, either. Nor were the safe havens of gold or the Japanese yen. The yield on benchmark U.S. 10-year Treasuries remained under pressure at 0.6545% and gold at $1,810.73 an ounce.
EARNINGS AHEAD
The U.S. earnings season approaches with investor hopes high for a stabilisation, but warning signals are flashing and Federal Reserve officials raised fresh doubts on Wednesday about the durability of the rebound.
The United States has also posted its largest number of daily new coronavirus cases since the outbreak began and global tensions are on the rise.
U.S. jobs data due at 1230 GMT will offer the next checkup on the recovery's progress, followed by results next Tuesday from J.P. Morgan, Citigroup (NYSE:C) and Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC), then Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) on Thursday.
"Earnings season is upon us, and we really want to see what it looks like," said Jun Bei Liu, a portfolio manager at Australia's Tribeca Investment Partners.
Graphic: World FX rates in 2020 http://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/rngs/GLOBAL-CURRENCIES-PERFORMANCE/0100301V041/index.html
Graphic: Asian stock markets https://product.datastream.com/dscharting/gateway.aspx?guid=516bc8cb-b44e-4346-bce3-06590d8e396b&action=REFRESH