By: Barbara Zigah

The common currency Euro continued to extend its recovery from this week’s earlier struck 7-week low against the U.S. Dollar, which is coming under heavy sell pressure as commodity prices appear to be stabilizing. One trader in Japan noted that market players, including hedge fund operators, believe that the last three tumultuous weeks in the commodities market is over and that recovery is helping to support the Euro, with rebuilding of positions is now occurring. As reported at 2:56 p.m. (JST) in Tokyo, the Euro was trading against the greenback at $1.4292, a 0.3% gain and well off the7-week trough of $1.4048 struck on Monday.

The greenback had made some slight gains after the release yesterday of April’s Federal Reserve meeting minutes which showed that a growing majority of Fed members prefer to address the issue of rising inflation through interest rate hikes rather than additional quantitative easing. The U.S. Dollar had earlier traded at a 3-week peak against the Japanese Yen, at 81.8 Yen, helped in part by the rise in yields on U.S. Treasuries after the minutes release. An increase in investor risk appetite, however, pushed the greenback broadly lower, however.