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(Bloomberg) -- Oil steadied near the lowest close since January as concerns about a US slowdown outweighed the lift from falling inventories.Most Read from BloombergThe Serious Work That Free Play Can DoBrent traded below $76 a barrel after a four-day slump, with selling pressure in that run exacerbated by trend-following algorithmic traders. West Texas Intermediate was near $72. US job growth was probably far less robust in the year through March than previously reported, adding to a string of

A Greek-flagged oil tanker traveling through the Red Sea came under repeated attack Wednesday, leaving the vessel “not under command” and drifting ablaze after an assault suspected to have been carried out by Yemen's Houthi rebels, the British military said. The attack, the most serious in the Red Sea in weeks, comes during a monthslong campaign by Houthis targeting ships over the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip that has disrupted a trade route through which $1 trillion in cargo typically passes each year. In the attack, men on small boats first opened fire with small arms about 140 kilometers (90 miles) west of the rebel-held Yemeni port city of Hodeida, the British military's United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center said.

The dollar traded near the lowest in more than a year against the euro and sterling on Thursday as a dovish Federal Reserve and fresh signs of weakness in the U.S. job market backed the case for interest rate cuts. The dollar sagged below the closely watched 145 yen mark as U.S. Treasury yields slid, ahead of weekly jobless claims data later in the day and a hotly anticipated speech by Fed Chair Jerome Powell at the central bank's annual Jackson Hole symposium on Friday. Fed officials last month were strongly leaning toward an interest rate cut at their September policy meeting and several of them would have even been willing to reduce borrowing costs immediately, according to the minutes of the July 30-31 gathering released on Wednesday.

A sharp sell-off in crude oil paused on Thursday after expectations of a rate cut by the Federal Reserve offset a bunch of weak economic data from the world's two largest economies, the United States and China. Brent crude futures were 3 cents up to $76.08 a barrel. WTI touched its lowest since early February on Wednesday after revised U.S. employment statistics showed fewer jobs than previously reported and weak economic data from China, the world's second-largest economy.

Stock investors should keep at least 20% of their portfolio in cash, according to billionaire investor Mark Mobius.

Analysts say countries like Malaysia and Thailand may want to hedge in a more polarized world and get better access to China and India.

(Bloomberg) -- Stocks in Asia were primed for gains Thursday after further signs the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates next month lifted Wall Street.Most Read from BloombergThe Serious Work That Free Play Can DoShare futures for Japan, Australia and Hong Kong all rose, while a gauge of US-listed Chinese shares climbed 2.4%. Contracts for US equities also edged higher in early Asian trading after the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 indexes both advanced Wednesday.Shorter-term Treasuries outperformed