The Australian dollar struck a fresh 29-year high and South Korea’s benchmark share index hit another intraday high on Monday, revealing that investors remain eager to embrace risk and higher-yielding assets.
Reuters reports that, “commodities pushed higher with spot gold hitting a record high of $1,517.71 an ounce and U.S. silver futures scaling a 31-year peak.”
The U.S. dollar had risen 0.1 percent against a basket of currencies to 74.086.DXY, but stayed within sight of a trough of 73.735 that was hit last week, it’s lowest since August 2008.
According to Reuters, “the (U.S.) dollar rose 0.4 percent against the yen to 82.22 yen, supported by dollar-buying by Japanese importers and as traders took aim at stop-loss dollar buying orders said to be lurking near 82.50 yen.”
Markets are anxiously awaiting a news conference by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke on Wednesday after the bank’s two-day policy meeting to determine how the central bank intends to ease from its super-easy monetary policy.
