Asian session: The dollar and yen dropped

01:30 Australia National Australia Bank's Business Confidence March 1 2

01:30 China PPI y/y March -1.6% -1.8% -1.9%

01:30 China CPI y/y March +3.2% +2.5% +2.1%

The dollar and yen dropped against most major peers as traders estimated policy makers in the U.S. and Japan will maintain or expand monetary stimulus measures.

The greenback fell for a fifth day versus the euro after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said economic conditions aren’t where he’d like them to be. Bernanke said yesterday that Fed tests of whether U.S. financial companies could survive a severe recession have strengthened the banking system and aided economic growth. “Today the economy is significantly stronger than it was four years ago, although conditions are clearly still far from where we would all like them to be,” he said in a speech in Stone Mountain, Georgia.

The yen slid to a more than three-year low against the euro as Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said currency movements are having an overall positive impact. The yen plunged 6.4 percent in the previous three days versus the dollar, the most since 1988, after the Bank of Japan took unprecedented easing steps. The yen hasn’t been at 100 per dollar since April 2009. The currency’s 14-day relative strength index against the greenback was at 27, below the 30 level that some traders see as a sign an asset’s price has fallen too fast.

EUR / USD: during the Asian session, the pair rose to $ 1.3070.

GBP / USD: during the Asian session, the pair rose to $ 1.5280.

USD / JPY: during the Asian session, the pair rose to Y99.70, but fell to Y99.05 later.