USD/CNY at 6.6680 strengthens the yuan; USD/JPY at 157.32 weakens the yen; USD/KRW at 1323.71 is flat-soft; price by currency.

USD/CNY at 6.676 (-0.0225), USD/JPY at 158.12 (-0.019) and USD/KRW at 1326.94 (+0.0467); the three currencies no longer move together. A firmer yuan lowers the RMB landed cost of dollar crude, while a slightly weaker won raises South Korean refiners' import bills, reshuffling the Northeast Asian buyer ranking.

Brent settled at $109.801 and WTI at $98.706, with both benchmarks gaining less than $0.30 on the day, yet the spread reopened to $11.10 after sitting near $8. The yuan firmed to 6.679 against the dollar, so the landed duty-paid cost — Brent times FX times 7.33 times grade — actually eased, reshuffling the feed economics of short-haul light-sweet grades like ESPO, Dubai and Oman.