European session:

The euro rose against the dollar as European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet said policy makers are “carefully” monitoring inflation, fueling bets the economy is strong enough to withstand higher interest rates.
The ECB needs “to avoid commodity-price increases becoming entrenched in longer-term inflation expectations, which could have second-round effects on wages and prices,” Trichet said at a conference in Berlin today, according to a text provided by the Frankfurt-based ECB. “We are carefully monitoring the situation and we stand ready to do whatever is necessary to fulfill our mandate.”
The single currency snapped four days of losses against the Swiss franc, climbing from a record low. The Financial Times reported that European Financial Stability Facility Chief Executive Officer Klaus Regling said Asian investors, including China, may buy Portuguese bailout bonds when the EFSF sells them in June, easing concern that the region’s sovereign-debt crisis will spread.
“China’s interest is definitely a short-term positive,” said Imre Speizer, a strategist in Auckland at Westpac Banking Corp. “The longer-term issue of a restructuring of some sort for Greece remains in the background and may be an obstacle to a longer-term rally in the euro.”