The dollar remained under pressure overnight, falling to a new six-week low against a basket of its major counterparts.
The greenback's broadly heavier tone was largely due to the Federal Reserve's pledge Tuesday to keep its policy stance extremely accommodative for an extended period of time.
Record low lending rates undermine the appeal of dollar-denominated assets and encourage traders to seek higher yields in riskier assets like stocks, commodities and emerging-market currencies.
The dollar had already been pressured by some moderation of concern about Greece's credit crisis after Standard & Poor's removed the nation's credit rating from review for an additional downgrade earlier this week.
Risk assets like stocks and higher-yielding currencies were buoyed by the Bank of Japan's move overnight to further ease monetary conditions. The central bank doubled its budget for assets purchases to ensure banks in the world's second largest economy have access to ample liquidity.
The flood of liquidity provided to global economies by major central banks remains supportive of risk assets and should continue to undermine the appeal of low yielders like the dollar and yen. The pound jumped to a three-week high after minutes of the Bank of England's latest policy meeting showed officials voted unanimously to leave lending rates and the bank's quantitative easing program unchanged. Strong jobs figures added to the pound's surge overnight.
USD: U.S. wholesales prices fell by 0.6% month over month in February, a larger drop than the expected 0.2% decline. Excluding food and energy, PPI was up just 0.1% month over month, exactly as expected.
The data show that the Fed's lack of concern about inflation is, at least for now, justified. However, in the last month, commodity prices have soared higher, a fact that is likely to be reflected in upcoming readings of wholesale prices. The dollar was mostly unmoved by the news.
GPB: The pound soared to near a three-week high against a basket of currencies overnight after a combination of supportive Bank of England minutes and a blowout jobs number prompted investors to trim some of their short positions in the British currency.
