The USD remained under pressure, led by AUD then GBP, which made fresh trend highs of 0.8264 and 1.6624 respectively. The broad-based selling pressure on the USD prompted a fresh intervention by regional Asian central banks to stem the rise in their currencies. The intervention is seen prompting demand for U.S. treasuries with bond yields edging marginally lower during Asian trading as the intervention picked up. AUD/USD rallied on the back of positive +0.4% rise in Q1 GDP data while GBP/USD gained on stop-loss hunting over 1.6600 and in the wake of the UK consumer confidence data that was the best result since November 2008. EUR/USD, though bid on the AUD and GBP performance, stalled near the NY highs, at 1.4330, though dips were very shallow and limited to only 1.4272 with the market determined to completely retrace the sell-off seen last year, after the global credit crisis. Aside from Taiwan, all Asian stock markets are higher on continued signs of a global recovery. Oil held above $68 while gold edged up on fresh USD weakness.
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