Bloomberg Russia is considering a plan to buy as much as $70 billion in yuan and other “friendly” currencies this year to slow the ruble’s surge, before shifting to a longer-term strategy of selling its holdings of the Chinese currency to fund investment. The offshore yuan briefly extended gains against the dollar after the news, rallying to a session high. ...

  Bloomberg The yen declined to its lowest since 1998, prompting warnings from Japanese government officials, as the yield gap between the US and Japan widened to heap more pressure on the currency. It falls as much as 0.5% to 139.68 per dollar in Thursday trading — a hair’s breadth from the key psychological level of 140, before paring the ...

  Bloomberg China’s biggest banks, including Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd., reported slowing earnings growth and eroding margins after being enlisted by Beijing to help stave off a deeper slump in the world’s second-biggest economy. ICBC, the world’s biggest bank by assets, reported net income grew 4.9%, the slowest in two years, in the first half of the ...