Currencies

• EUR/USD The dollar was set to gain against all of its 16 major peers this week before data forecast to show improvement in the U.S. economy.
  
  • The U.S. currency traded at $1.2868 per euro from $1.2882 after touching $1.2843 on May 15, the strongest since April 4. It has gained 0.9 percent since May 10

• USD/JPY The dollar was little changed at 102.34 yen as of 10:53 a.m. in Tokyo from 102.26 yesterday, poised for a 0.7 percent advance this week. It reached 102.76 on May 15, the highest since October 2008.

• USD/CAD The Canadian dollar declined for a fifth time in six days versus its U.S. peer as a regional Federal Reserve president said the central bank may begin slowing monthly bond-buying as the labor market strengthens.
  • The loonie, as the Canadian dollar is known for the image of the aquatic bird on the C$1 coin, fell 0.4 percent to C$1.0195 per U.S. dollar at 5 p.m. in Toronto. It touched C$1.0219 yesterday, the weakest since April 25. One loonie buys 98.09 U.S. cents.

Commodities

• Oil West Texas Intermediate crude swung between gains and losses after rising the most in a week. OPEC was forecast to increase oil exports this month to meet rising demand from Asian refiners.
  • WTI for June delivery was at $95 a barrel, down 16 cents, in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange at 11:55 a.m. Sydney time. The volume of all contracts traded was 55 percent below the 100-day average. Prices rose 86 cents to $95.16 yesterday, the highest close since May 13. They are down 1 percent this week.
    
    
  • Brent for July settlement slid 5 cents to $103.73 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange. The European benchmark crude was at a premium of $8.41 to WTI futures for the same month, down from $8.64 yesterday. The spread closed at $9.38 on May 15, the widest since April 26

• Gold bears are dominant again after prices resumed their slump and billionaire George Soros joined investors selling holdings in exchange-traded products that have retreated to a two-year low.
  
  • The metal fell 18 percent to $1,380.57 in London this year and is trading 28 percent below its September 2011 record. Gold is the second-worst performer this year in the Standard & Poor’s GSCI gauge of 24 commodities, after silver. The S&P GSCI dropped 3.2 percent since the start of January and the MSCI All-Country World Index of equities rose 11 percent. Treasuries lost 0.3 percent, a Bank of America Corp. index shows.
    
    

Equities

• Asian stocks fell for a second day as companies from WorleyParsons (WOR) Ltd. to Nippon Sheet Glass Co. forecast weaker earnings and data on jobless claims and housing signaled a slowdown in the U.S.
  
  
  • The MSCI Asia Pacific Index slipped 0.3 percent to 142.66 as of 11:01 a.m. Tokyo time, all 10 industry groups in the measure declining. The gauge increased 11 percent this year through yesterday as the Bank of Japan took steps to counter deflation and policy makers in the U.S. and Europe remained on standby to buoy growth. The measure is heading for a second week of advance.

• European stocks were little changed, after the benchmark Stoxx Europe 600 Index yesterday extended its highest level since June 2008.
  
  
  • The Stoxx 600 slipped less than 0.1 percent to 307.97 at the close of trading in London, after earlier rallying to its highest level in almost five years. The gauge has still climbed 10 percent so far in 2013, its best start to a year since 1998, bolstered by central-bank monetary stimulus

• U.S stocks fell, ending four days of records for the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index, amid disappointing economic data and after a Federal Reserve official said the central bank may slow the pace of stimulus as early as this summer.
  
  
  • The S&P 500 (SPX) fell 0.5 percent to 1,650.47 at 4 p.m. in New York. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 42.47 points, or 0.3 percent, to 15,233.22. More than 6.4 billion shares traded hands on U.S. exchanges today, or 2 percent above the three-month average.