Bloomberg North Korea appears to have fired an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) in a defiant show of force just hours after US President Joe Biden wrapped up a visit to the region, testing his efforts to strengthen defense ties with South Korea and Japan. South Korea said a suspected ICBM reached an altitude of about 540 kilometres (335 miles) and …

Bloomberg New Zealand’s central bank (RBNZ) raised interest rates by half a percentage point for a second straight meeting and forecast further aggressive hikes to come to tame inflation. The Reserve Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee lifted the official cash rate (OCR) to 2% from 1.5% on Wednesday in Wellington, as expected by 19 of 22 economists in a Bloomberg survey. It …

Bloomberg The yuan’s biggest weekly gain in two years could be fleeting, with some analysts forecasting its slide to the 7 per dollar level. Option traders are reviving bearish wagers on the Chinese currency as indicated by the three-month dollar-offshore yuan risk reversal, which advanced this week for the first time since mid-May. The cost of shorting the yuan also …