Japan May retail sales YoY 5.3% (est. 3.2%); April revised up to 2.8% from 2.1%.

Putin said special operations forces personnel are Russia's true elite.

The RESERVE BANK OF AUSTRALIA has warned official rates could rise further, keeping Middle East tensions and oil prices in focus for policy. Matthew Hassan, head of Australian macro forecasting at Westpac, said oil and gas supply normalization will be a slow, bumpy process and persistent domestic inflation would force the RBA to hike again in August. He added the RBA board will face a difficult choice given already-soft economic growth.