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Asia's stockmarkets steadied on Wednesday, with signs of a slowdown in U.S. wages bolstering hopes that the Federal Reserve could hint at an end to interest rate hikes at its meeting later in the day. Wall Street indexes had rallied, as had bonds to a lesser extent, while the dollar gave up gains overnight when the Fed's preferred wages gauge, the U.S. employment cost index, showed a 1% rise last quarter, its smallest increase in a year.

In Putin's surprise announcement on Thursday, he unilaterally ordered his troops to observe a ceasefire from Friday to run through the Russian Orthodox Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy rejected the idea out of hand, saying the goal was to halt the progress of Ukraine's forces in Donetsk and the wider eastern Donbas region and bring in more of Moscow's forces.

Russian and Ukrainian forces exchanged artillery fire at the front line in Ukraine on Friday, even after Moscow said it had ordered its troops to stop shooting for a unilateral truce that was firmly rejected by Kyiv.

Russian and Ukrainian forces exchanged artillery fire at the front line in Ukraine on Friday, even after Moscow said it had ordered its troops to stop shooting for a unilateral truce that was firmly rejected by Kyiv.

We know, we have learnt not to trust them." Russia's defence ministry said its troops began observing the ceasefire from noon Moscow time (0900 GMT) "along the entire line of contact", but said Ukraine had kept up shelling populated areas and military positions. Reuters heard explosions of what Ukrainian troops at the front line described as incoming Russian rocket fire.