Fresh US data showing persistent inflation so far this year and limited signs of a weakening job market underscore a Federal Reserve in no rush to start lowering interest rates. Industrial production figures illustrated a euro area economy that’s merely limping along. In Japan, speculation intensified for the first rate hike in more than a decade after the country’s largest labor union secured big wage deals. The world of geopolitics continued to evolve, including Ukrainian drone attacks on Russian oil refineries, declining foreign investment in China and US concerns about Beijing’s subsidies for shipbuilders. Here ... (full story)