The U.S. currency continues to strengthen given the recent demand for riskier currencies. Falls in equity markets have driven traders to reduce their positions in riskier, higher yielding currencies. Many of the uncertainties in the currency markets are due to earnings season on Wall Street.

One dollar currently sits at 99.08 yen and touched 99.49 in early Tuesday evening Asian trade. The upward move for the greenback is an impressive and sharp reversal of a sharp fall off to open the new currency trading week Sunday evening and Monday morning.

The U.S currency extended gains on its Japanese and European counterparts Tuesday as optimism about a U.S. government plan to remove bad assets from banks’ balance sheets prompted investors to resume safe haven bets on the Dollar.

With a rally in stocks and other equity markets last week, traders witnessed a significant downtrend in USD pairs and crosses. Losing strength to almost all currency rivals, save the JPY, the greenback indeed suffered from this increase in risk appetite.

The USD is mixed to open New York today after starting mildly better in Asia overnight; traders note initial disappointment from the G-20 meeting which announced nothing new and appeared to be simply a re-hash of the current economic situation created a brief push higher for the Greenback.

THE SPOT PRICE of physical gold rose Wednesday lunchtime in London, cutting yesterday’s 2.6% loss in half as world stock markets also bounced hard.

The dollar has made a surge against the Euro and Pound, along with several other major currencies, in the last few days. Even as the Dow fell sharply below 7,000 points, closing at 6,726 Tuesday (March 3), the dollar remains poised to break through near-term highs against its European counterparts.