The U.S. dollar on the defensive on Thursday after the Federal Reserve opened the door for an interest rate cut in September, helping keep the yen pinned near its highest since March in the wake of a hawkish pivot from the Bank of Japan.

Prices in British shops rose at the joint-slowest rate since October 2021 this month, held down by falls in the cost of non-food items as food prices continued to rise, the British Retail Consortium said on Tuesday.

The euro zone's economy grew slightly more than expected in the three months to June, data showed on Tuesday, but a mixed underlying picture and a string of pessimistic surveys cloud the outlook for the rest of the year.

China's manufacturing activity in July shrank for a third month, an official factory survey showed on Wednesday, keeping alive expectations Beijing will need to launch more stimulus as a protracted property crisis and job insecurity drag on growth.

U.S. job openings fell modestly in June and data for the prior month was revised higher, suggesting the labor market continued to gradually slow and was not in danger of rapidly weakening.

Asian stocks clung to familiar ranges on Wednesday after contrasting results from tech bellwether Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) and chipmaker AMD suggested a divide in the AI landscape while the yen was firm ahead of the Bank of Japan's policy decision.