TOKYO, Jan 21 (Reuters) - The safe-haven yen gained versus the riskier Australian dollar on Friday as risk sentiment soured amid rekindled fears of heated inflation and aggressive Federal Reserve policy tightening.

SHANGHAI, Jan 20 (Reuters) - China stepped up it's monetary easing efforts to prop up a slowing economy this week by lowering a set of key policy rates and lending benchmarks, and markets believe Beijing could ease further before growth bottoms out.

TOKYO, Jan 20 (Reuters) - Japan's exports and imports in December hit record highs in terms of their value in yen, data showed on Thursday, as supply bottlenecks eased at the end of 2021 amid rising prices.

SHANGHAI, Jan 20 (Reuters) - Asian share markets broke a five-day slide to edge higher on Thursday, shrugging off drops in Europe and on Wall Street overnight as China underscored its diverging monetary and economic picture by cutting benchmark mortgage rates.

HONG KONG, Jan 20 (Reuters) - Higher commodity prices were supporting the Canadian and Australian dollars on Thursday, while a pause in this week's rally in U.S. Treasury yields meant the dollar also marked time.

SINGAPORE, Jan 20 (Reuters) - Oil prices slipped back on Thursday after hitting their highest levels since 2014 in the previous session on the back of strong demand and short-term supply disruptions, underlying factors that limited losses as investors took profits.