By Tom Westbrook

SINGAPORE (Reuters) -The dollar tracked toward monthly gains on Thursday ahead of highly-anticipated inflation data that could ruffle the interest rate outlook, while the sliding yen found a footing after a policymaker hinted at the need to exit ultra-easy policies.

Bitcoin was on the charge, topping $63,000 early in the European morning for a gain of nearly 50% in February. The monthly rise is the largest since December 2020, and a record high above $69,000 is within sight. It was last at $63,051.

The yen and fellow safe-haven Swiss franc are the worst performing G10 currencies against the dollar this month as investors have sought out riskier assets and as bets on U.S. interest rate cuts have been dialled back - lifting the dollar.

The yen last traded at 149.87 to the dollar, down about 2% on the month. It was almost 0.6% higher on the day after Bank of Japan board member Hajime Takata said he felt there were finally prospects for achieving the bank's 2% inflation target, paving the way to leave behind negative rates and yield caps.

The yen is down more than 2% on the euro this month and made nine-year lows on the Australian and New Zealand dollars as investors pick up income by borrowing yen at rates near zero and selling it against currencies where interest rates are higher.

"Takata's remarks should add to conviction that an earlier than expected hike at March meeting should not be ruled out," said Christopher Wong, currency strategist at OCBC.

"With JPY shorts at record high, unwinding of shorts should see JPY bears run for cover."

The euro was steady at $1.0835 and largely flat for the month, as was sterling at $1.2665. The Australian and New Zealand dollars have lost ground in February as expectations firmed that rate hikes have finished down under.

The New Zealand dollar in particular nursed losses at $0.6105, having dropped 1.2% on the dollar a day ago when the central bank held rates and surprised markets with a downward tweak to its rates forecast. The Australian dollar ticked 0.3% higher to $0.6516 on Thursday for a monthly drop of 0.8%.

The Federal Reserve's favoured measure of inflation - the core personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index - is due later on Thursday and forecasts are for a rise of 0.4%.

It was not long ago investors were hoping for just a 0.2% increase but high readings on consumer and producer prices suggest the risk is for a result as high as 0.5%.

"A stronger than expected PCE deflator can cause markets to reduce pricing for a May rate cut even further, supporting U.S. dollar," said Commonwealth Bank of Australia (OTC:CMWAY) currency strategist Kristina Clifton.

Markets price about a 20% chance of a Fed easing in May, and have pushed out the likely timing of a cut to June. Futures imply a little more than three 25 basis point cuts this year, compared to five at the start of the month.

The U.S. dollar index was little changed at 103.86.

By Summer Zhen

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Only 62 new hedge funds launched in Asia last year, the lowest since number since 2009 and just 15 were China-focused funds, data provider Preqin said.

But Japan-focused funds more than doubled to 19.

WHY IT'S IMPORTANT

The figures underscore the shift away from China as the world's second-largest economy struggles amid a property sector crisis and trade tensions with the United States.

Instead there is rising demand for Japan, pan-Asia, and multi-manager strategies, market participants say.

BY THE NUMBERS

* Liquidations outpaced launches in 2023 with 74 funds closing shop and nearly half of those were China-focused funds, the data showed.

* Only 15 hedge funds with a focus on China were launched, plummeting from 34 in 2022 and marking the lowest number since 2004.

WHAT’S NEXT

At least three multi-manager hedge funds which invest in a variety of asset classes are in the pipeline for this year, according to market participants and allocators.

One of those will be launched by Arrowpoint Investment Partners, run by Jonathan Xiong, former Asia co-CEO at Millennium Management. Bloomberg first reported the fund launch.

The firm has raised about $1 billion from investors, according to sources familiar with the matter who were not authorised to speak to media and declined to be identified.

Xiong declined to comment.

QUOTES

Patrick Ghali, managing partner of Sussex Partners, remains cautious about the potential for much growth in new fund launches this year.

"Japan is of great interest at the moment, but a lot of investors don't fully understand the incredible alpha opportunity of that market and are investing in long only funds instead," he said, referring to the potential to generate returns that are higher than market benchmark gains.

By Dave Sherwood

HAVANA (Reuters) -Cuba`s government said it plans to reschedule an unpopular five-fold increase in retail gasoline prices for March 1, a month later than initially planned, after officials said its systems had suffered a cyberattack.

The problems caused by the late January cyberattack have been resolved, economy vice minister Mildred Granadillo said in a state-run media report, allowing the government to move forward with retail price increases at the pump.

Cuba in late December announced a series of measures, including hikes in fuel and public transport prices, in a bid to narrow a ballooning fiscal deficit. Critics have attacked the policies as inflationary, ill-timed and lacking incentives for domestic production.

"The measure in itself has an inflationary impact; however, there is a group of decisions that mitigate its impact,” said minister of finance and prices Vladimir Regueiro.

Officials said they had decided to limit the fuel price rises on March 1 to the retail sector, leaving the discounted wholesale prices that apply to public services such as transportation unchanged to soften the blow on consumers.

The communist-run government said it would also move forward on March 1 with a previously announced hike in the price of electricity for top-tier users, but decided to hold off on increasing the price of liquefied gas used widely on the island for cooking.

The price increases come as Cuba undergoes its worst economic crisis in decades, prompting a record-breaking migration off the island and growing angst among Cubans who suffer severe shortages of food, fuel and medicine.

Blackouts, too, have been on the rise in recent weeks, with deficits in generation at times running at nearly one-third of demand, leaving many in the dark for several hours a day.

Energy and mines minister Vicente La O Levy said the retail fuel price hikes - which include selling some gasoline in dollars - would more closely reflect its market value and help Cuba purchase more fuel to stem the blackouts and shortages.

By Hyonhee Shin

SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has called for an "industry revolution" in rural regions by building factories nationwide, state media KCNA said on Thursday, amid chronic food shortages and widening economic inequality.

Attending the groundbreaking ceremony for a plant in Songchon County, east of the capital Pyongyang, Kim pledged to push ahead with his "Regional Development 20×10 Policy", under which the country seeks to open modernised factories in at least 20 remote counties every year for the next 10 years.

The policy was unveiled as Kim's key economic initiative at a meeting last month of the Supreme People's Assembly, the country's rubber-stamp parliament.

"Establishing regional industry factories equipped with modern equipment and production lines in every city and county of the country within the next 10 years is truly a great revolution with enormous epochal significance," Kim told the ceremony, according to KCNA.

Kim handed over regimental colours at the ceremony to a military unit that has recently been created to carry out the initiative, saying that they would "create an era of great change for radically developing regions".

Kim has been pushing for modernising the farming sector and rural communities as North Korea's economy heavily relies on agriculture but has long grappled with food shortages amid sanctions over its weapons programmes and seasonal impacts from natural disasters.

North Korean defectors have reported deepening inequality between largely elite residents of Pyongyang and other major cities, and the farming population in rural areas.

South Korea's unification ministry said last month that the economic gap between them appears to have further widened in terms of everything from food rations and housing to education and access to healthcare.

By Andrea Shalal, Christian Kraemer and Marcela Ayres

SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Western powers butted heads over how to handle frozen Russian assets on Wednesday as G20 finance ministers kicked off a discussion of challenges for the global economy, trying to set aside deep geopolitical divisions.

Brazilian officials hosting the two-day meeting in Sao Paulo sought to focus talks on economic cooperation to tackle issues such as climate change and poverty, proposing a joint statement that avoids direct mention of the wars in Ukraine and Gaza.

Yet the geopolitical issues hanging over the event soon spilled into the open, with even close allies divided over what to do with Russian assets blocked by Western powers.

Those fissures were visible after ministers from the Group of Seven (G7) major democracies gathered early on Wednesday before the G20 proceedings, debating whether the frozen assets could finance the reconstruction of Ukraine.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Tuesday said she believed there was a strong basis in international law to unlock value from the Russian assets, as collateral or by seizure.

But French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire argued on Wednesday that there is not enough basis in international law to seize the Russian assets, emphasizing that such a move would require the endorsement of G20 members and other countries.

"We should not add any kind of division among the G20 countries," he told reporters. "If the legal basis is not sufficient ... you will create more divisions at a time when we need more unity to support Ukraine."

Their disagreement underscored tricky geopolitical terrain for the G20 group of major world economies, whose foreign ministers last week in Rio de Janeiro vented deep divisions over the war in Ukraine and Israel's bombardment of Gaza.

Brazil's coordinator of the G20 finance track in Sao Paulo, Tatiana Rosito, said negotiations for the economic portion of the group's communique were successfully completed by deputy ministers in a "very positive" atmosphere.

A draft version of the communique, seen by Reuters on Tuesday, made only a passing reference to regional conflicts.

But German Finance Minister Christian Lindner said his country will only agree on the G20 communique if geopolitical issues such as the war in Ukraine are mentioned.

Brazil is trying with its presidency of the G20 to shift discussions away from geopolitical tensions between major powers and toward a consensus on sustainable development, while trying to give developing nations of the Global South more voice.

In his address opening the meeting of finance ministers and central bank governors, Brazilian Finance Minister Fernando Haddad proposed a global minimum wealth tax, representing a potential new pillar for international tax cooperation.

Haddad had already suggested the G20 tackle tax havens for the most wealthy and inheritance taxes favoring the super-rich.

Brazil's central bank governor Roberto Campos Neto called the fight against inflation a crucial tool for combating inequalities, one of Brazil's priorities in the G20 presidency.

While acknowledging recent progress in disinflation since the pandemic, Campos Neto called for persistence.

"There is still work to be done in the last mile, and risks remain ahead," he said.

By Jihoon Lee

SEOUL (Reuters) -South Korea's market watchdog chief warned that companies could face penalties for failing to boost shareholder returns in the long run, signalling a tougher approach after a reform package to spur voluntary efforts was met with market disappointment.

"Authorities are discussing various measures to deal with firms failing to meet certain criteria regarding shareholder returns," Lee Bok-hyun, governor of the Financial Supervisory Service, told a press conference on Wednesday.

The steps under consideration were not included in the corporate reform package announced on Monday but Lee said they will be incorporated once authorities have finalised details.

Possible penalties include removing non-compliant firms from the stock market, Lee said, adding that it would be problematic for firms to remain listed while making no progress over a prolonged period.

The reform plan for listed companies announced on Monday, dubbed "Corporate Value-up Programme", aims to boost shareholder returns in an effort to reduce the "Korea discount" on stock prices.

The Korea discount refers to a tendency for South Korean companies to have lower valuations than global peers due to factors such as low dividend payouts, and the dominance of opaque conglomerates known as chaebols.

But many analysts said the reform package didn't go far enough, noting the lack of details and the absence of any penalties or tax benefits that would push companies to make changes.

"The FSS governor's comments raise hope that there will be follow-up measures that are compulsory," said Park So-yeon, an analyst at Shinyoung Securities.

"There is considerable concern that it might be a policy just prepared for the legislative election in April, but if it does get carried out under a mid- to long-term roadmap, it will be something we can look forward to," Park said.

In separate comments on Wednesday, after meeting with representatives from foreign investment banks to hear their views about the policy initiative, vice finance minister Kim Byoung-hwan said the programme "will not end up as a one-time, short-term task but is part of continuous, mid- to long-term efforts".

The benchmark KOSPI index rose more than 1% on Wednesday, after falling for two straight days. Shares of automakers and banks, considered undervalued, led the gains.

By Clare Jim and James Pomfret

HONG KONG (Reuters) -Hong Kong's financial secretary on Wednesday announced major measures to bolster the city's flagging property market by scrapping most stamp duties on transactions, with the city economy expected to grow a modest 2.5%-3.5% this year.

The financial hub that expanded 3.2% in 2023, will cancel all buy-side property tightening measures for residential properties and waive stamp duties payable on the transfer of REIT units, Paul Chan told lawmakers in his annual budget.

Noting challenges including high interest rates, a complex geopolitical environment as well as ballooning recent budget deficits, Chan announced a mix of measures spanning property, tourism and financial services to lure back capital, businesses and visitors to the city, as well as restore fiscal balance.

On property, long a key pillar of the economy, Chan said all demand-side management measures for residential properties would be scrapped with immediate effect.

"We consider that the relevant measures are no longer necessary amidst the current economic and market conditions," Chan said, adding that there was room to further tweak measures for the real estate sector.

These include cutting all additional stamp duties for foreign buyers and those for the purchase of second properties, that had been imposed in the decade prior to the current slump to try to cool one of the world's priciest property markets.

Hong Kong's housing prices have plunged 20% since their 2021 peak given both economic and political headwinds, including a national security clampdown that stoked an emigration wave from the city and a slowing Chinese economy impacting potential Chinese home buyers - long a driver of the market.

Hong Kong's stock market property sub-index was up just over 2% on the news, before paring back some gains.

"It is believed that in the short term, it will stimulate the trading volume, promote the recovery of the property market, restore market confidence, and stabilize property prices," said Wang Zhaoqi, the head of research for property firm Knight Frank.

The government will roll out more than HK$1 billion ($127 million) in support measures for its beleaguered tourism industry, to help offset the impact from the struggling Chinese economy, which has resulted in fewer visitors from the mainland.

The city will stage more than 80 "mega events" in the first half of the year to boost tourism, including a monthly fireworks and drone show at its famed Victoria Harbour.

On Hong Kong's ballooning fiscal deficits, with the city running up deficits for four of the past five years, Chan pledged to "adopt a fiscal consolidation strategy to narrow our fiscal deficit progressively towards achieving the goal of restoring fiscal balance," though he didn't specify a timeframe.

In fiscal 2022/23 Hong Kong posted a budget deficit of HK$122.3 billion ($15.63 billion) after taking into account the proceeds of HK$66 billion received from issuance of green bonds.

Economic growth has also been hampered by geopolitical tensions between China and the United States, while capital flight turned the Hong Kong stock market into the worst performing major index last year.

($1 = 7.8260 Hong Kong dollars)

By Timothy Gardner

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. environment regulator said on Tuesday it is launching new cleanup projects at 25 hazardous waste sites from New Jersey to Oregon with $1 billion in funds.

The sites are in the Environmental Protection Agency's Superfund program, originally created in 1980, which helps to repurpose land polluted by heavy industry for new economic development, including parks and warehouses.

The $1 billion is the third and final wave of $3.5 billion in funding appropriated by the bipartisan infrastructure bill U.S. President Joe Biden signed into law in 2021.

"This funding will help improve people's lives especially those who have long been on the front lines of pollution," Janet McCabe, the deputy EPA administrator told reporters on a call.

McCabe said 75% of the 25 sites are in historically underserved communities. The $1 billion also will help speed up ongoing work at 85 Superfund sites. More than 25% of Black and Hispanic Americans live within three miles (5 km) of a Superfund site, McCabe said.

New Jersey, which has more Superfund sites than any other state, has three sites among the 25 including Raritan Bay Slag in Old Bridge and Sayreville, where a seawall and jetty were built using slag, waste from the bottom of industrial blast furnaces used to smelt metal from the 1960s to the 1970s.

U.S. Representative Frank Pallone of New Jersey said the funding will work well with an expected infusion of $23 billion over five years for Superfund after "polluters pay" taxes for the program were reinstated in the infrastructure law and Biden's Inflation Reduction Act.

"Reinstating that Superfund tax is really only about basic fairness that corporate polluters, not taxpayers, should have to pay to clean up the messes that they created," Pallone told reporters.

In Clackamas, Oregon, the funding will help clean up the Northwest Pipe & Casing/Hall Process Company site where pipes were made and coated from the 1950s to the 1980s contaminating soil and groundwater with solvents, primers, coal tar and other pollutants, the EPA said.

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australian consumer price inflation held at a two-year low in January, dashing forecasts for a tick higher and reinforcing market expectations interest rates would not need to increase any further.

There has been limited market reaction as the January release is heavily weighted toward goods prices that have been falling faster than services, and thus suggest some scope for a downside surprise.

Data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics on Wednesday showed its monthly consumer price index (CPI) rose at an annual pace of 3.4% in January, unchanged from December and under market forecasts of 3.6%.

A closely watched measure of core inflation, the trimmed mean, rose an annual 3.8%, down from 4.0% in December. Inflation excluding volatile items and holiday travel slowed to 4.1% from 4.2%.

For January alone, CPI fell 0.3% from the previous month, driven by declines in holiday travel, clothes and garments and petrol. Holiday travel slumped 5.2% from a month earlier.

The Reserve Bank of Australia has raised interest rates by 425 basis points since May 2022 to a 12-year top of 4.35%, and has not ruled out the risk of another hike if necessary to bring inflation back to the bank's target band of 2-3%.

Financial markets are confident the RBA is done tightening. Swaps imply about a 60% chance of a first rate cut in August and a total easing of 38 basis points by the end of the year, little changed from before.

The Australian dollar was little changed at $0.6547, and three year bond futures held at 96.26.

By Stephen Nellis and Shivansh Tiwary

(Reuters) -Apple has canceled work on its electric car, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Tuesday, a decade after the iPhone maker kicked off the project.

Shares of the company were up 0.7% in afternoon trading, having pared some losses from earlier in the trading day.

Several employees working on the electric car project will be shifted to the firm's artificial intelligence (AI) division, according to Bloomberg News, which first reported the development.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) declined to comment.

High interest rates to tame inflation have soured consumer sentiment and led to a slowdown in demand for usually pricier electric vehicles, prompting the industry to cut jobs and reduce production.

Several major automakers, including EV market leader Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA), have decided to pull back on investments, with some shifting plans to focus on hybrids instead of fully battery-powered cars.

Apple kicked off Project Titan, as its car effort was known internally, a decade ago, as a wave of interest in self-driving vehicles swept through Silicon Valley.

Reuters reported in 2020 that Apple was considering releasing a vehicle as soon as 2024 or 2025.

But progress had been uneven even before the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the global automotive industry.

Apple had laid off 190 workers from the group in 2019 after revamping its software approach.

The design of the concept vehicle also changed, from a radical, steering-wheel-free autonomous vehicle that would have been a departure from traditional automotive design, to a more conventional car with advanced driver-assistance features.