The greenback remained close to a 1-week trough as a safe-haven currency as investor sentiment shifted toward higher risk assets. Benefiting from that shift were assets linked to commodities, notably the Aussie and Kiwi Dollars which both traded close to a 1-week peak. That led to the US Dollar Index to trade lower, moving from the 3-month peak that was struck on Tuesday. The decline in yields on US Treasuries is also keeping the greenback lower. Also providing a boost to higher risk assets was market players' collective relief that the recovery of the US economy through both fiscal and monetary stimulus does not seem to be facing the threat of runaway inflation or overheating.
In Tokyo trading as of 10:50 am, the EUR/USD was trading higher at $1.1989, a gain of 0.02%, off the session peak of $1.19891. The AUD/USD was higher at $0.7792, up 0.1324%, while the NZD/USD was higher at $0.7729, a gain of 0.0942%.
North American Data Eyed
Looking ahead in the trading day, besides inflation data out of the Eurozone and the UK, market attention will likely shift to North America. First, Statistics Canada will release labor data, including the unemployment rate for February which analysts expect to decline to 9.2% (from 9.4%). The Net Change in Employment is also expected to show a significant improvement to 75,000 from -212,800. Then, in the US, a preliminary release of the Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index is due out; economists have predicted that the index will rise slightly to 78.5 from 76.8.