Reuters

The dollar was flat on Friday, leaving it on course for its biggest weekly rise this year as a rise in U.S. Treasury yields fueled by a tax reform plan triggered a shake-out in short bets against it.

Britain’s economy recorded its weakest year-on-year growth since 2013 in the three months to the end of June.

Japan’s Nikkei share average ended almost flat on Friday but posted its biggest monthly gain this year as investors rebuilt positions they had scaled back earlier this month on geopolitical concerns.

Japan’s core inflation accelerated in August, industrial output rose more than expected and demand for labor remained at its strongest in over 40 years in a further sign of solid momentum in the world’s third-largest economy.

Asian shares tried to regain some poise on Friday after a tough week in which the gathering risk of a U.S. rate rise lifted Treasury yields toward nine-year highs and boosted borrowing costs across the region.

Gold rebounded above a six-week low on Thursday, as the dollar turned lower and ushered in short-covering.

Sterling slipped to a two-week low on Thursday after the governor of the Bank of England said the central bank could not be expected to nullify the likely damage to the economy from Brexit.

The dollar and global borrowing costs rose on Thursday after President Donald Trump proposed the biggest shake-up of the U.S. tax system in three decades and strong data supported the case for another Federal Reserve rate hike later this year.

A fledgling party led by popular Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike gained momentum on Thursday ahead of an Oct. 22 election as the biggest opposition Democratic Party said it would step aside to let its candidates run under her reformist banner.

Japanese government bond prices dropped on Thursday, with the benchmark futures posting their biggest daily fall in three months, as investors anticipated possible fiscal expansion both in Japan and the United States.