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By Chibuike Oguh NEW YORK (Reuters) -The U.S. dollar fell against the euro and yen on Wednesday with market sentiment weakened by the continuing trade tensions between the U.S. and China. Traders analyzed comments from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell for cues on upcoming rate cuts amid a U.S. government shutdown, which has hampered the timely release of key data. The dollar weakened 0.39% to 151.24 against the Japanese yen and was down 0.49% to 0.797 against the Swiss franc, on track for the second straight session of losses against both safe-haven currencies.  Top U.S. officials, including Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, blasted China's major expansion of rare earths export controls as a threat to global supply chains. Greer described China's export controls as a complete repudiation of U.S.-Chinese trade agreements over the past six months although he and Bessent stressed that Washington did not want to escalate the conflict. President Donald Trump had threatened to impose tariffs on China last week in retaliation. The Chinese commerce ministry defended the rare-earths controls, pointing to a series of U.S. measures on Chinese goods and companies and calling it hypocritical. "The market is showing an impressive ability to shrug off trade-related headlines and there's a firm belief that the U.S. and China will find a way to move forward and will make an agreement," said Adam Button, chief currency analyst at ForexLive. "The headlines continued to be inflammatory, including today from Bessent and Greer. But the market saw how Trump quickly de-escalated over the weekend and doesn't yet believe he wants a real fight." The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of currencies including the yen and the euro, fell 0.32% to 98.72, on track for the second consecutive session of losses. The Fed's Beige Book showed that U.S. economic activity was little changed and employment was largely stable in recent weeks, although there were emerging signs of weakness including more layoffs and middle- and lower-income  households pulling back on spending.  Powell, in a speech on Tuesday, left the door open to rate cuts by saying the U.S. labor market remained mired in low-hiring, low-firing doldrums. He said the absence of official economic data due to the government shutdown has not prevented policymakers from being able to assess the economic outlook, at least for now. Markets are currently priced for a quarter-point cut at the October 28-29 Fed gathering and another at the following meeting in December, followed by three more cuts next year, according to LSEG data. The yield on benchmark U.S. 10-year notes fell 1.6 basis points to 4.038%. Wall Street stocks finished mostly higher as companies continued to report strong results as the quarterly earnings season kicked off. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.04%, the S&P 500 rose 0.40% and the Nasdaq Composite rose 0.66%.   The euro rose 0.35% to $1.1646 after gaining 0.3% in the previous session, supported by the French government's proposal to suspend landmark pension reforms. "Even if the French political upheaval has started to moderate, outright bullish catalysts are lacking for the euro at this stage," TS Lombard analysts led by Daniel von Ahlen wrote in an investor note. "Meanwhile, the recent performance of the EUR/USD is now on par with the past rallies following maor policy announcements in the euro area, which adds to our tactical caution on the common currency." The New Zealand dollar edged up only 0.1% to $0.5721, after dipping to a six-month low of $0.56839 on Tuesday.  The Aussie climbed 0.39% to $0.651, after falling 0.5% a day earlier, when it touched the lowest since August 22 at $0.64405.     (Reporting by Chibuike Oguh in New York; Additional reporting by Chuck Mikolajczak in New York, Kevin Buckland in Tokyo and Lucy Raitano in London; Editing by Aurora Ellis and Cynthia Osterman)

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By Luc Cohen NEW YORK (Reuters) -A woman who says she was abused by the late financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein sued Bank of America and the Bank of New York Mellon on Wednesday, alleging the banks knowingly provided financial services that enabled his sex trafficking operation for years.  Bank of America, the second-largest U.S. bank, declined to comment. BNY did not immediately respond to a request for comment.  The woman, referred to in court papers as Jane Doe, is seeking an unspecified amount of damages from both banks. She is represented by law firms Boies Schiller and Edwards Henderson, who previously secured settlements of $75 million and $290 million with Deutsche Bank and JPMorgan , respectively, over their alleged financial ties to Epstein.  Neither Deutsche nor JPMorgan admitted wrongdoing in agreeing to settle.  CONGRESS PROBES EPSTEIN CASE  Epstein died by suicide in 2019 in jail while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. The circumstances of his death, as well as his social relationships with wealthy and powerful individuals, fueled theories that others were involved in his crimes.  His case has become a political headache for President Donald Trump's administration. After pledging during the 2024 campaign to release files from the Justice Department's investigation into Epstein, the administration reversed course this year, prompting an outcry from Trump's conservative base and members of Congress.  The House Oversight Committee is now investigating the Epstein case.  In both lawsuits, Jane Doe said she met Epstein in 2011 while she was living in Russia. She said she became financially dependent on Epstein, who raped her, forcibly touched her, and forced her to engage in sex acts with other women at least 100 times between 2011 and 2019.  "As Congress works toward unraveling how Jeffrey Epstein was able to orchestrate his criminal sex trafficking enterprise for decades without detection, we are taking another important step forward toward justice for survivors," Sigrid McCawley, a lawyer for Jane Doe, said in a statement.  DOE SAYS EPSTEIN PAID HER RENT   Jane Doe said she opened a Bank of America account in 2013 at the direction of Richard Kahn, Epstein's former accountant, and that Kahn regularly sent her money for rent through the account.  Lawyers for Kahn did not immediately respond to a request for comment.  Doe said in 2015, Kahn's assistant told her that Epstein was adding her to the payroll for a "sham company" and that she would receive funds through her Bank of America account. She said she did not know the purpose of those payments.  Her lawyers wrote that those transactions should have raised red flags for Bank of America. Epstein had pleaded guilty to state-level prostitution charges in Florida in 2008 as part of an arrangement that allowed him to avoid federal prosecution.  The lawsuit against BNY said the bank gave a line of credit to MC2, a modeling agency that the lawsuit said Epstein and French model scout Jean-Luc Brunel used to traffic victims. In total, BNY processed $378 million in payments to women trafficked by Epstein, the lawsuit said.  Brunel was arrested in December 2020 and was found dead in jail in 2022, according to Parisian prosecutors.  Both lawsuits said the banks should have filed Suspicious Activity Reports with the U.S. Treasury Department. The lawsuits said such reports could have helped law enforcement stop Epstein sooner.   (Reporting by Luc Cohen and Saeed Azhar in New York; Editing by Chris Reese, Rod Nickel)

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By Noel Randewich (Reuters) -The S&P 500 ended higher on Wednesday, with Morgan Stanley and Bank of America rallying after solid quarterly results, while investors remained focused on the recent increase in China-U.S. trade tensions. Morgan Stanley's shares jumped 4.7% to a record high, while Bank of America rose 4.4% after the top lenders beat Wall Street estimates for third-quarter profit on dealmaking strength.  The S&P 500 banking index rose 1.2% in its first three-day winning streak in more than three weeks. A day earlier, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase reported solid performance in investment banking and predicted that the business would continue to boom. This week's bank results indicate strength for major U.S. companies as third-quarter earnings season kicks off, and they also provide hints of the economy's health while many macroeconomic reports remain on hold due to a government shutdown. "People are spending, and the consumer seems to be fine. That's been one of the messages from the bank earnings," said Thomas Martin, senior portfolio manager at GLOBALT in Atlanta. "Employment is not falling like a stone. Both inflation and employment are within ranges that are basically reasonable." The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index jumped 3% after ASML reported third-quarter orders and operating income above market expectations, lifted by booming AI investment. ASML's U.S. stock rallied 2.7%. An investment consortium including BlackRock, Microsoft and Nvidia will buy one of the world's biggest data center operators in a $40 billion deal. Shares of data center firms rose, with Applied Digital surging. The S&P 500 climbed 0.40% to end the session at 6,671.06 points. The Nasdaq gained 0.66% to 22,670.08 points, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 0.04% to 46,253.31 points. Seven of the 11 S&P 500 sector indexes rose, led by real estate, up 1.5%, followed by a 1.29% gain in utilities. Volume on U.S. exchanges was relatively heavy, with 21.5 billion shares traded, compared with an average of 20.4 billion shares over the previous 20 sessions. U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told CNBC that Washington did not want to escalate a trade conflict with China, emphasizing that President Donald Trump is ready to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping in South Korea later this month. On Tuesday, Trump said Washington was considering cutting some trade ties with China, including in relation to cooking oil. The two countries this week began imposing tit-for-tat port fees. Bessent also said he plans to present three or four Federal Reserve chief candidates to Trump for him to interview sometime after the U.S.  Thanksgiving holiday. Fed Governor Stephen Miran at a CNBC event said "two more cuts this year sounds realistic," noting that the labor market has clearly weakened. Fed Chair Jerome Powell on Tuesday also left the door open to rate cuts.  The Fed said in its latest Beige Book report compiled through October 6 that some employers reported cutting jobs due to economic uncertainty, and in some cases, due to increased investment in AI. The report also showed the labor supply in hospitality, agriculture, construction and manufacturing was strained due to the Trump administration's crackdown on illegal immigration. Abbott declined 2.4% following downbeat quarterly revenue from the medical equipment maker. Progressive Corp fell 5.8% after the insurer reported third-quarter results. Bunge jumped almost 13%, despite the grain trader lowering its 2025 earnings forecast following its merger with Viterra. The number of declining stocks matched rising ones within the S&P 500. The S&P 500 posted 34 new highs and 5 new lows; the Nasdaq recorded 154 new highs and 46 new lows. (Reporting by Sukriti Gupta and Twesha Dikshit in Bengaluru, and by Noel Randewich in San Francisco; Editing by Maju Samuel and Matthew Lewis)

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CHICAGO (Reuters) -United Airlines on Wednesday forecast a higher-than-expected profit in the fourth quarter on the back of robust demand for premium travel and improved pricing power. The Chicago-based airline expects an adjusted profit in the range of $3.00 a share to $3.50 per share in the quarter through December. The midpoint of the forecast is $3.25 per share, compared with analysts' average estimate of $2.86, according to LSEG data. United's third-quarter adjusted profit came in at $2.78 a share, topping analysts' expectations of $2.63 a share. Its earnings report comes barely a week after rival Delta Air Lines forecast record earnings in the December quarter. Both United and Delta have consistently outperformed the broader airline industry since the pandemic by focusing on high-margin revenue streams that tap into the financial strength of premium, corporate, and international travelers. This has led to a growing divide in the earnings of U.S. carriers. While Delta and United are generating most of the industry's profits, more domestic-focused, budget-oriented carriers are grappling with softer demand and greater pricing pressure. United generated $15.2 billion in revenue in the third-quarter, an increase of 2.6% from a year ago. Its premium revenue was up 6%, while loyalty revenue grew 9%. (Reporting by Rajesh Kumar Singh; Editing by Chris Reese)

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