Global stocks have fallen and the dollar has risen as investors, concerned over the United States’ possible entry into the Israel-Iran air war, seek safe-haven assets and ditch riskier ones.

President Donald Trump kept the world guessing about whether the United States would join Israel’s bombardment of Iranian nuclear sites, telling reporters outside the White House on Thursday, “I may do it. I may not do it.”

The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump had told senior aides he approved attack plans on Iran but was holding off on giving the final order to see if Tehran would abandon its nuclear programme.

In Europe, stocks fell for a third day on Thursday, leaving the STOXX 600 down nearly 2.5 per cent on the week, set for its biggest week-on-week decline since the tariff-induced turmoil of April.

US S&P 500 futures fell 0.6 per cent, although most US markets – including Wall Street and the Treasury market – will be closed on Thursday for a public holiday.

“Market participants remain edgy and uncertain,” said Kyle Rodda, senior financial markets analyst at Capital.com.

Speculation was rife “that the US will intervene, something that would mark a material escalation and could invite direct retaliation against the US by Iran”, he said.

“Such a scenario would raise the risk of a greater regional conflict, with implications for global energy supply and probably economic growth.”

Much of the recent nervousness in markets has been centred around crude supply shocks from the Middle East, which has driven the price of crude oil up by 11 per cent in a week.

Brent crude rose nearly one per cent to $US77.40 a barrel, close to its highest since January.

Gold, which tends to struggle when the dollar gains, pared earlier losses to trade at $US3,366 an ounce.

The dollar itself rose broadly, leaving the euro down 0.1 per cent at $US1.1466 and the Australian and New Zealand dollars – both risk-linked currencies – down 0.7 per cent and one per cent, respectively.

Overnight, the Federal Reserve delivered some mixed signals to markets. Much to Trump’s displeasure, policymakers held rates steady as expected and retained projections for two quarter-point rate cuts this year.

However, Fed chair Jerome Powell struck a cautious note about further easing ahead, saying at his media conference later that he expected “meaningful” inflation ahead as a result of Trump’s aggressive trade tariffs.

Markets will now look to a string of central bank policy decisions out of Europe for any possible catalysts.

The Swiss National Bank cut interest rates to zero, as expected, leaving the franc to drift as markets had priced in a roughly-20 per cent chance of a half-point cut.

The franc, which has been a major beneficiary of safe-haven buying this year, was last steady against both the dollar, at 0.819 francs, and the euro at 0.9395 francs.

The Bank of England is up next and is expected to keep UK rates unchanged.

Data on Wednesday showed inflation cooled as expected in May, although food prices shot up and policymakers will be considering the potential impact from higher energy prices in light of the Israel-Iran war.

Sterling edged 0.1 per cent lower to $US1.341.

Australians are making the perilous journey to flee across Israel’s borders as a conflict with Iran continues to escalate.

Less than a week after arriving in Tel Aviv to visit family, Alan and his wife are among hundreds of Australians making a mad dash to escape missile-fire overhead.

Waiting at the Allenby border crossing into neighbouring Jordan on Thursday, the Australian said he could be stuck there for hours as cars and trucks surrounded him bumper-to-bumper.

“But when you’ve been in and out of bomb shelters four to five times a night and having the stress of going through what we’ve gone through, we decided we had to pull out all stops to get out,” he told AAP.

He and his wife were offered seats on a bus arranged by Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs into Jordan but decided to make their own way after airports shuttered following Israel’s strikes on Iran, which triggered waves of retaliatory missile fire.

“If you took the bus, you have to arrange everything yourself from the Jordanian border to get where you wanted to go (in) different parts of Jordan,” he said.

“We felt we would be very vulnerable and it would take a lot of time.”

So they organised a private car which picked the pair up at 6.30am on Thursday to take them across the border in a 12 to 13-hour trip.

“If we left later, the queue would have been six hours and you can’t be guaranteed you’ll necessarily get across the border,” said Alan, who asked that his surname not be used.

On the other side, they have arranged to be picked up with their visas before heading to Amman Airport for their flight home.

Australian authorities evacuated the first group of citizens across a land border out of Israel on Wednesday, Foreign Minister Penny Wong said.

Israeli Ambassador Amir Maimon said he was “assisting the Australian government in every possible way” to get people out.

Evacuation was riskier in Iran, where the advice for Australians was to shelter if there was no opportunity to leave safely.

Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles said the government was working on contingencies including repatriation flights once the skies reopened.

Amid concerns the US could enter the conflict, about 1200 Australians in Israel have registered with the Department of Foreign Affairs for help to leave, while 1500 Australians and family members have sought help to leave Iran.

But Australian mother-of-three Emily Gian and her family have decided to stay where their home and work are despite life in recent days spent in and out of underground bunkers.

“We could hear it so loud that my kids thought that it was near our house,” Ms Gian told AAP on Wednesday.

“You feel the house shake.”

Unlike earlier conflicts with Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis, Ms Gian said the strikes from Iran came with the added fear the nation was believed to be working on nuclear weapons.

The conflict began on Friday after Israel moved to wipe out Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile program, claiming the Islamic republic was on the verge of developing nuclear weapons.

Senator Wong said the Iranian regime threatened the stability of the Middle East, urging it to return to the negotiating table and discontinue any nuclear program.

Israeli strikes on Iran have killed at least 639 people and wounded 1329 others, according to Washington-based group Human Rights Activists, while Israel said at least 24 civilians had been killed.

Australian universities have taken a reputational hit globally but prospective students shouldn’t think they won’t receive a top-tier education.

Higher education experts delivered that verdict after a number of unis sunk down the prestigious 2026 QS World University Rankings list.

University of Melbourne retained its position as the top-rated Australian institution but it took a six-place slide against overseas educational facilities, slipping from 13th to 19th in the world.

University of NSW ranked 20th, down from 19th in the 2025 edition, while Sydney University dropped seven spots to 25th.

Australia had been “living off our reputation for years”, with facilities in other countries improving while a lack of government funding and international students hurts local progress. RMIT strategic insights director Angel Calderon said.

“But even though rankings are sort of declining in Australia, we have one of the best systems in the world and it’s quality education, people need to take rankings with a grain of salt,” he told AAP.

“At the end of the day, people should be able to pursue their dreams, regardless of what a ranking is telling you.”

Australia’s debate surrounding international student levels and universities operating at financial deficits had hurt reputations, Mr Calderon said.

Monash University higher education policy professor Andrew Norton said the fall in rankings were not highly significant but could mean more international students shunned local universities.

“Policy change in Australia and its competitors in the USA, UK and Canada are reducing the supply of international student places … for universities that is a bigger worry than the rankings,” he told AAP.

The chief executive of Australia’s Group of Eight – the nation’s leading universities known for their strong research and high academic standards – said the results remained “impressive”.

“This comes against a backdrop of global uncertainty and mixed messaging from our largest research partner, the US, which threatens our very capacity to deliver on our mission of education and research,” Vicki Thomson said.

“And yet despite these headwinds, Australia continues to punch above its weight, ranking fifth overall as the best higher education system in the world.”

The QS rankings test universities on a string of categories including academic and employer reputation, citations per faculty, their global engagement and sustainability.

Melbourne tops both reputation categories for Australian schools and is the only one inside the top-50 based on reputation with employers.

Opposition senator Jonno Duniam said the results were “sobering” and should prompt a rethink on higher education policy and funding.

“We want education policies that meet the 21st-century skills that our economy demands, not just funding injections from which Australian taxpayers cannot see a reasonable return on their investments – not to mention our university students who deserve better,” he said.

Australian National University (ranked 32 in the world), Monash (36) and Queensland (42) are the next highest-rated facilities.

Adelaide University, a merger of two former South Australian universities, made its first appearance on the list at 82.

One of its predecessors, the University of Adelaide, was 82 in 2025.

The University of Sydney, which notched one of the nation’s largest drops, pointed to other recent rankings where it topped Australian schools.

“Rankings fluctuate year to year, and this year is no exception, with minor changes across the board in both major rankings,” vice-chancellor Mark Scott said.

TOP 10 AUSTRALIAN UNIVERSITIES IN QS WORLD RANKINGS

*University of Melbourne – 19 (previous rank – 13)

*UNSW – 20 (19)

*University of Sydney – 25 (18)

*ANU – 32 (30)

*Monash – 36 (37)

*University of Queensland – 42 (40)

*University of Western Australia – 77 (77)

*Adelaide University- 82 (new entry)

*UTS – 96 (88)

*RMIT – 125 (123)

The prime minister is considering whether to dash to Europe to attend a global leaders’ summit in an attempt to secure a meeting with Donald Trump.

Having arrived back in Sydney on Thursday after attending the G7 summit in Canada, Anthony Albanese is weighing up whether to travel to The Hague for next week’s NATO summit, as tensions between Iran and Israel threaten to escalate into a larger war.

The summit would provide Mr Albanese a potential opportunity for a face-to-face conversation with Mr Trump, whose last-minute, early departure dashed hopes of a meeting at the G7.

Foreign Minister Penny Wong said all options were being evaluated.

“The prime minister has said before he left Canada that he was considering whether he should attend NATO. Obviously, we will weigh that up,” she told ABC Radio on Thursday.

“This is a very unstable time in the world … but we have a war in Europe and a war in the Middle East and we really need to work with other countries to do all we can to protect peace, security and stability.”

Defence Minister Richard Marles was slated to represent Australia at the summit and said a decision on who would attend NATO would be made soon.

“Whatever happens in terms of what decision is made, Australia will be represented at NATO,” he told ABC News.

“It’s a really important forum which has become more important, I think, in terms of Australia’s national interest in the last few years than we’ve perhaps seen it in the past.”

Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young said Mr Albanese’s main goal should not be a one-on-one with Mr Trump.

She said uncertainty in the wake of the US president’s policy positions demonstrated Australia did not need to pursue closer ties with the US.

“I don’t think chasing Donald Trump from one side of the globe to the other, frankly, is becoming of the prime minister,” she told Sky News.

“I don’t think it’s in necessarily Australia’s best interests. It risks humiliation.

“All you need to do is look at what’s going on in the Middle East right now and Trump’s attitude to that. 

“Australia needs to be doing everything we can to stay away from it.”

Mr Albanese would be expected to advocate for Australia’s nuclear submarine deal with the US and UK at his meeting with Mr Trump and for ending tariffs imposed by America on exports.

Australia’s exports to the US continue to be hit with a baseline 10 per cent tariff, with steel and aluminium products incurring a 50 per cent levy.

While Mr Albanese was unable to meet with Mr Trump at the G7, he held talks with the president’s economic team, including US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.

Opposition trade spokesman Kevin Hogan said it was in Australia’s economic and national security interests for Mr Albanese to sit down with Mr Trump.

“Albanese should have had a meeting with Trump a long time ago,” he told Sky News.

“He hasn’t made it a priority. It’s now embarrassing, the fact that he hasn’t been able to secure one.”

Long-delayed reforms to nature protections could be knocked over within 18 months under a timeline mapped out by the federal environment minister.

Murray Watt flagged broad support for new national environmental standards, a key ask of the now five-year-old Samuel review, which declared the legislation ineffective and outdated.

Environmentalists, industry, Indigenous groups and other stakeholders gathered in Canberra to restart discussions after the Labor government failed to pass reforms in its first term. 

The previous minister, Tanya Plibersek, came close to a deal with the cross bench in late 2024 for a federal environmental protection agency but pressure from West Australian mining interests was thought to have influenced Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s intervention to scuttle it.

Federal nature protections are designed to kick in when renewable energy, mines and development threaten vulnerable species and other “matters of national environmental significance”.

Senator Watt said everyone agreed the current laws were broken.

“They’re not adequately protecting the environment,” he told reporters after the meeting.

“They’re not delivering for business in terms of certainty and timeliness of approval.”

He did not expressly rule out a climate trigger in the reworked rules, but pointed to the safeguard mechanism and other existing legislation driving down domestic industry emissions.

“The other point is that the scope three emissions – so emissions that are generated when fossil fuels developed in Australia are burned and used overseas – are managed under the Paris Agreement that almost every country has signed up to,” he said.

Climate Council chief executive officer Amanda McKenzie, who attended the roundtable, welcomed the “renewed energy” behind the reforms and reiterated her call for climate to be included. 

“In terms of the approvals of large fossil fuel projects, climate should be included in the act so those projects can be prevented,” she told AAP.

Ms McKenzie said the minister appeared to have grasped the importance of a more efficient, streamlined environmental approval system for the clean energy transition.

In May, conservation groups and the clean energy industry joined forces to urge the government to hurry the reforms, with “faster yeses and faster nos” a key ask for renewables developers.

Senator Watt expressed his desire to deliver new environmental protections in the first half of the parliamentary term and his willingness to work with either the Greens or the opposition to pass them.

The plan is to develop a full package of reforms in one go, rather than break it into pieces as happened in 2024 when time ran short before the election.

A surprise fall in jobs will do little to further improve the prospects of a Reserve Bank rate cut as the central bank weighs up the impact of a tight labour market.

Australia’s unemployment rate held steady at 4.1 per cent in May, but 2500 jobs dropped out of the economy, the Australian Bureau of Statistics reported on Thursday.

Despite the result confounding forecasts of a 21,200 gain in employment, economists don’t expect the RBA to read too much into it as it followed a jump of 87,600 jobs in April.

The fall in employment suggested some “payback” in the labour market, IG market analyst Tony Sycamore said.

Employment was still up by 2.3 per cent since May 2024, a rise bigger than the pre-pandemic, 10-year average annual growth rate of 1.7 per cent, bureau head of labour statistics Sean Crick said.

“This fall in employment, combined with a drop in unemployment of 3000 people, meant that the unemployment rate remained steady at 4.1 per cent for May,” he said.

The volatility in employment figures has not been reflected in the jobless rate, which has held within a tight 3.9 to 4.4 per cent range since March 2024.

The participation rate fell 0.1 per cent to 67 per cent.

“Together, today’s numbers imply the labour market is continuing to gradually cool,” Mr Sycamore said.

The Reserve Bank watches the labour market closely as it is a key influence on inflation.

Mr Sycamore expects the RBA to lower interest rates by 25 basis points at its next board meeting in July, but the rates market marginally reduced the odds of a July cut to 63 per cent following the latest release.

ANZ economists Aaron Luk and Adam Boyton said the labour market was tracking healthier in the June quarter than the RBA expected in its May forecast.

But they expect the central bank to ignore some of the noise of the fluctuating employment growth figures.

“The unemployment rate has averaged 4.07 per cent over the June quarter so far versus the RBA’s forecast of 4.2 per cent,” they said, while employment growth was also tracking higher than forecasts.

“These aren’t large differences, but they do show a better near-term labour market picture than the RBA’s starting point in the May Statement on Monetary Policy.

“That said, we suspect these data won’t sway the market or analysts one way or another on the July RBA board meeting.”

Treasurer Jim Chalmers said low unemployment was one of the best defences against uncertainty in the global economy.

“While other countries have sacrificed much higher unemployment for progress on inflation, Australia has been able to preserve the gains we’ve made in our labour market at the same time as we’ve got inflation down and jobs up,” he said.

Meanwhile, population growth slowed to 0.1 percentage points to 91,133 in the final three months of 2024, as net overseas migration dropped by a fifth.

Alongside the slowdown in immigration, a recent recovery in dwelling approvals meant the pace of new housing entering the market was finally on track to meet growth in underlying demand, AMP economist My Bui said.

Australia’s population was just over 27.4 million people at the end of 2024, the bureau said.

Queensland and Western Australia were the only jurisdictions to experience positive net interstate migration, while NSW was the biggest loser.

More than 28,000 people abandoned the nation’s first state for cheaper housing markets.

Australian universities have sunk down a prestigious world rankings list, although many have spun their declines as positives.

University of Melbourne retained its position as the top-rated Australian institution in the 2026 QS World University Rankings.

But it took a six-place slide against overseas educational facilities, slipping from 13th to 19th in the world.

University of NSW ranked 20th, down from 19th in the 2025 edition, while Sydney University dropped seven spots to 25th.

All three are in Australia’s Group of Eight – the nation’s leading universities known for their strong research and high academic standards.

Group of Eight chief executive Vicki Thomson said the results remained “impressive”.

“This comes against a backdrop of global uncertainty and mixed messaging from our largest research partner, the US, which threatens our very capacity to deliver on our mission of education and research,” she said.

“And yet despite these headwinds, Australia continues to punch above its weight, ranking fifth overall as the best higher education system in the world.”

The QS rankings test universities on a string of categories including academic and employer reputation, citations per faculty, their global engagement and sustainability.

Melbourne tops both reputation categories for Australian schools and is the only one inside the top-50 based on reputation with employers.

“As employment outcomes continue to be a key driver of student choice, we have significantly improved our global standing in this category,” Melbourne University’s vice-chancellor Emma Johnston said.

“(It) is a reflection of the value employers place on our graduates and the real-world impact of a University of Melbourne education.”

Opposition senator Jonno Duniam said the results were “sobering” and should prompt a rethink on higher education policy and funding.

“We want education policies that meet the 21st-century skills that our economy demands, not just funding injections from which Australian taxpayers cannot see a reasonable return on their investments – not to mention our university students who deserve better,” he said.

Australian National University (ranked 32 in the world), Monash (36) and Queensland (42) are the next highest-rated facilities.

Adelaide University, a merger of two former South Australian universities, made its first appearance on the list at 82.

One of its predecessors, the University of Adelaide, was 82 in 2025.

“This result confirms that Adelaide University will create quality at the scale needed to deliver far-reaching benefits for Australia’s research and higher education,” Ms Thomson said.

Sydney, which notched one of the nation’s largest drops, pointed to other recent rankings where it topped Australian schools.

“Rankings fluctuate year to year, and this year is no exception, with minor changes across the board in both major rankings,” Sydney’s vice-chancellor Mark Scott said.

TOP 10 AUSTRALIAN UNIVERSITIES IN QS WORLD RANKINGS

*Melbourne – 19 (previous rank – 13)

*UNSW – 20 (19)

*Sydney – 25 (18)

*ANU – 32 (30)

*Monash – 36 (37)

*Queensland – 42 (40)

*WA – 77 (77)

*Adelaide – 82 (new entry)

*UTS – 96 (88)

*RMIT – 125 (123)

Australia’s jobs market continues to show resilience with unemployment steady at 4.1 per cent in May, despite a surprise fall in jobs.

Some 2500 jobs were lost from the economy, the Australian Bureau of Statistics reported on Thursday, despite forecasters tipping a gain in employment of more than 22,000.

After a surprise jump of 87,600 jobs in the economy in April, the fall in employment suggests some “payback” has taken place in the labour market, IG market analyst Tony Sycamore said.

Employment was still up by 2.3 per cent compared to May 2024, which was stronger than the pre-pandemic, 10-year average annual growth rate of 1.7 per cent, ABS head of labour statistics Sean Crick said.

“This fall in employment, combined with a drop in unemployment of 3,000 people, meant that the unemployment rate remained steady at 4.1 per cent for May.”

The volatility in employment figures has not been reflected in the jobless rate, which has held within a tight 3.9 to 4.4 per cent range since March 2024.

The participation rate fell 0.1 per cent to 67 per cent.

“Together, today’s numbers imply the labour market is continuing to gradually cool,” Mr Sycamore said.

The Reserve Bank watches the labour market closely, given it is a key factor in the rate of price growth.

Mr Sycamore expects the RBA to lower interest rates by 25 basis points at its next board meeting in July, but the rates market marginally reduced its odds of a July cut to 63 per cent following the release.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers said low unemployment was one of the best defences against uncertainty in the global economy.

“While other countries have sacrificed much higher unemployment for progress on inflation, Australia has been able to preserve the gains we’ve made in our labour market at the same time as we’ve got inflation down and jobs up,” he said.

Australia’s unemployment rate has stayed below pre-COVID averages, despite elevated interest rates, in part because the labour market has been underpinned by strength in government-funded employment, such as in health and aged care.

But growth in market sector jobs – those not supported by government funding – has picked up in recent months, in keeping with a pick-up in private demand, said JP Morgan economists Ben Jarman, Tom Kennedy and Jack Stinson

“Rotation in employment growth from the public to private sector should improve allocative efficiency and help lift labour productivity growth,” they said ahead of the release.

Meanwhile, population growth slowed to 0.3 per cent in the final three months of 2024 to 91,133, as net overseas migration dropped by a fifth.

Australia’s population was 27,400,013 people on December 31, the ABS revealed.

Queensland and Western Australia were the only jurisdictions to experience positive net interstate migration, with NSW the biggest loser. More than 28,000 people fled Australia’s first state for cheaper housing markets.

Israel is helping Australia evacuate its citizens as its bombing campaign against Iran continues, the country’s ambassador says.

The first group of Australians fleeing the conflict crossed a land border out of Israel on Wednesday, assisted by the federal government.

Israeli ambassador Amir Maimon said he was personally involved in the Australian government’s efforts to get people out.

“We are assisting the Australian government in every possible way,” he told reporters on Thursday.

Israel’s top diplomat in Australia said it was important to emphasise that the conflict with Iran was not about regime change.

“It is not for the State of Israel to decide about the nature of the regime in Iran, it is for the Iranian people,” he said.

“We are focused on the military targets that were set.”

For Australian mother-of-three Emily Gian, life in the days since Israel launched strikes on Iran and triggered waves of missile fire in retaliation has been spent in and out of underground bunkers.

“We could hear it so loud that my kids thought that it was near our house,” Ms Gian told AAP on Wednesday.

“It’s a really loud boom. You feel the house shake.”

But unlike earlier conflicts with Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis, Ms Gian said the strikes from Iran came with the added fear that the nation was believed to be working on nuclear weapons.

“There’s always been a fear in Israel that an escalation with Iran is the ultimate and scariest escalation that could be,” she said.

But she won’t flee.

“Our plans are to stay here for now because we live here, our house is here, our life is here, our work,” Ms Gian said.

Melbourne lawyer Leon Zweir, who is in Jerusalem attending a conference, has registered with DFAT to be repatriated but will not leave until the event ends on Thursday.

He said the mood of Israelis was “resolute”, despite the missiles flying overhead.

Amid concerns the US could enter the conflict, about 1200 Australians in Israel have registered with the Department of Foreign Affairs for help to leave, while 1500 Australians and family members have sought help to leave Iran.

Foreign Minister Penny Wong said a small group left Israel via a land crossing on Wednesday and that the department is looking for more ways to evacuate Australians.

“Obviously, the situation on the ground is fluid,” she told ABC News on Thursday.

Evacuation was riskier in Iran, where the advice for Australians was to shelter in place if there was no opportunity to leave safely.

The conflict began on Friday after Israel moved to wipe out Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile program, claiming the Islamic Republic was on the verge of developing nuclear weapons.

US President Donald Trump has since met his national security council and demanded that Iran unconditionally surrender, adding he knew where Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was hiding.

Iran has warned of “all-out war” if the US joins the fray.

Senator Wong said the Iranian regime threatened the stability of the Middle East.

“It’s time, beyond time for Iran to come back to the negotiating table, for Iran to agree to discontinue any nuclear program,” she said.

Israeli strikes on Iran have killed at least 639 people and wounded 1,329 others, according to Washington-based group Human Rights Activists, while Israel said at least 24 civilians had been killed.

Stock markets in Asia edged lower while safe havens such as gold and the Japanese yen gained as investors remained on edge over the possible entry of the US into the week-old Israel-Iran air war.

President Donald Trump kept the world guessing about whether the United States will join Israel’s bombardment of Iranian nuclear sites, telling reporters outside the White House on Thursday, “I may do it. I may not do it.”

The Wall Street Journal said Trump had told senior aides he approved attack plans on Iran but was holding off on giving the final order to see if Tehran would abandon its nuclear program.

Japan’s Nikkei sank 0.8 per cent, with additional downward pressure stemming from a stronger yen, which reduces the value of overseas revenues for the country’s heavyweight exporters.

Taiwan’s stock benchmark slid 0.9 per cent, and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng declined 0.8 per cent.

US S&P 500 futures pointed 0.4 per cent lower, although most US markets – including Wall Street and the Treasury market – are closed on Thursday for a national holiday.

Gold advanced 0.3 per cent to $3,378 per ounce.

“Market participants remain edgy and uncertain,” said Kyle Rodda, senior financial markets analyst at Capital.com.

“Speculation remains rife – fed probably strategically by the Trump administration – that the US will intervene, something that would mark a material escalation and could invite direct retaliation against the US by Iran,” he said. “Such a scenario would raise the risk of a greater regional conflict, with implications for global energy supply and probably economic growth.”

Brent crude edged down to $76.32 per barrel, but remained not far from the 4-1/2-month peak of $78.50 reached on Friday.

The yen gained 0.2 per cent to 144.92 per dollar, while the US currency itself was also in demand as a haven, gaining 0.1 per cent to $1.1472 per euro and 0.2 per cent to $1.3398 versus sterling.

The Swiss franc edged down 0.1 per cent to 0.8193 per dollar.

The Bank of England and Swiss National Bank will both announce policy decisions later in the day, with the BOE widely expected to keep interest rates steady while the SNB is seen as likely to cut rates by 25 basis points.

Overnight, the Federal Reserve delivered some mixed signals to markets. Policymakers held rates steady, as expected, and retained projections for two quarter-point rate cuts this year.

However, Fed Chair Jerome Powell struck a cautious note about further easing ahead, saying at his press conference later that he expects “meaningful” inflation ahead as a result of Trump’s aggressive trade tariffs.