Investing.com – The dollar retreated across the board in Asia on Thursday morning, but remained well above the 90 level as the U.S. 10-year Treasury yields continued to weigh on the currency market. Meanwhile, Australia reported bullish import and export price index.
The U.S. dollar index that tracks the greenback against a basket of six major currencies last stood at 90.99, down 0.04 at 10:50PM ET (02:50 GMT). Although it was losing its steam slightly on Thursday morning, it was still on a bullish trend overall, climbing from the 89.5 range to above the 90 in a week to hit a three-month high.
The 10-year U.S. Treasury yield continued to rise on Wednesday, shoring up the greenback. The yield was driven up to a new four-year high of 3.033% on Wednesday, by concerns over the growing supply of government debt and inflationary pressures from mounting oil prices. The yield saw the biggest gain since early 2014.
The USD/JPY pair eased 0.05% to 109.37. On earlier Thursday morning, the pair broke the 109 level to a new high in two and a half months. Focus for the yen this week will be the Bank of Japan's (BoJ) Interest Rate Decision slated for Friday.
The AUD/USD pair was up 0.05% to trade at 0.7588. The Australian Import Price Index came out at 2.1% compared to the expected 1.3%, beating the previous reading of 2.0%, while the Export Price Index printed a 4.9% increase compared to the previous 2.8%, and a beat of the expected 4.1%. The better-than-expected data gave the Aussie a little boost, though the pair was still at its lowest range in a month.
The USD/KRW pair dropped 0.21% to 1,079.99. South Korea reported positive economic data on Thursday. Its GDP for January to March rose 1.1%, beating the estimated 1.0%. President Moon Jae-in is also set to meet his North Korean counterpart Kim Jong-un on Friday, catching world’s attention on how the geopolitical relations would go in East Asia and how it may pave way for the much anticipated U.S.-North Korean summit.
In China, The People's Bank of China set the fix rate of yuan against the dollar at 6.3283 versus the previous day's 6.3066. The USD/CNY pair eased 0.03% to trade at 6.3248.