Foreign exchange market. Asian session

(Time/ Region/ Event/ Period/ Previous/ Forecast/ Actual)

00:30 Australia Westpac Consumer Confidence May -3.2% 6.4%

05:00 Japan Coincident Index (Finally) March 110.7 109.5 109.2

05:00 Japan Leading Economic Index (Finally) March 105.3 Revised From 104.7 105.5 106.0

The U.S. dollar rose across the board after the euro was hit with a double whammy: the European Central Bank signaled it would step up bond buying in the coming weeks and investors got positive economic news out of the U.S.

Instead, the key to currency movements will be the release of the Federal Reserve meeting minutes late in the global day with markets looking for any indication of when the Fed might raise short-term benchmark interest rates.

The New Zealand dollar is trading lower late Wednesday driven primarily by moves in the U.S. dollar and the euro in overnight trading. ANZ added that the 20% lift in U.S. housing starts and 10% lift in building permits added some confidence to U.S. dollar bulls while the lack of bounce in the GlobalDairyTrade auction saw investors hold their New Zealand dollar positions.

EUR / USD: during the Asian session, the pair was trading in the $1.1120-50

GBP / USD: during the Asian session, the pair was trading in the $1.5495-25

USD / JPY: during the Asian session the pair rose to Y120.95

BOE MPC Minutes released at 0830GMT though most not expecting any major surprises, with last week's BOE QIR still fresh in traders' minds.