Another wave of Dollar buying emerged midway through the Asian session with the commodity currencies, especially the Aussie, bearing the brunt of the US unit's strength. AUD/USD breached the overnight low of 0.9796 as it plunged to new 11 month lows while the NZD/USD pierced the 0.8100 level.

Gold was content to trade within a $1381 - $1393 range after breaking support overnight to make new 4-week lows as it eyes the April 15 low of $1324. Initial resistance is at the $1405 level, which had previously been support, with a close above needed to relieve the immediate bearish pressure.

New Zealand's first quarter Producer Input & Output Prices rose +0.8% -vs- the previous quarter which was higher than market expectations of +0.2% and 0.0% respectively. The Kiwi had no reaction to this despite the nascent threat of inflation that was implied in these figures. Perhaps the threat of intervention by the RBNZ has had the desired effect or it could be that traders are loathe to sell the dollar at this juncture. Japanese March Machine Orders, which is an indicator of future capital spending, rose +14.2%, the largest monthly gain since 2005, -vs- estimates of +3.5%.