Reuters

The United States must be taken seriously when it says it might walk away from NAFTA, Canada’s foreign minister said on Thursday, a day after government sources said Ottawa was increasingly convinced U.S. President Donald Trump would pull the plug.

U.S. producer prices fell for the first time in nearly 1-1/2 years in December amid declining costs for services, which could temper expectations that inflation will accelerate in 2018.

Gold prices were near their highest in four months on Thursday as a dip in global stocks and recent gains in commodity prices encouraged investors to hold bullion as insurance against a stock market correction and rising inflation.

South Korea’s government said on Thursday it plans to ban cryptocurrency trading, sending bitcoin prices plummeting and throwing the virtual coin market into turmoil.

Oil prices held near three-year highs on Thursday, supported by a surprise drop in U.S. production and lower crude inventories.

The Bank of Japan maintained the amount of its bond purchases on Thursday, helping to soothe a market rattled earlier this week by a cut in its buying of longer-dated debt.

The U.S. dollar fell to a more than six-week low against the Japanese yen and weakened against a basket of major currencies on Wednesday after a report that China was ready to slow or halt its U.S. Treasury purchases.

The Canadian dollar weakened to its lowest this year against the greenback on Wednesday as worries about the outlook for NAFTA tempered bets that the Bank of Canada will raise interest rates next week.

Chinese officials reviewing the country’s vast foreign exchange holdings have recommended slowing or halting purchases of U.S. Treasury bonds amid a less attractive market for them and rising U.S.-China trade tensions, Bloomberg News reported on Wednesday.

Major government bond yields hit multi-month highs on Wednesday, extending earlier gains on a report that Chinese officials have recommended slowing or halting purchases of U.S. government bonds.