SYDNEY/TOKYO: The safe-haven Japanese yen slid from recent peaks against the greenback on Wednesday as solid gains in oil prices helped underpin risk appetite.
With hopes of a production cap agreed by top producers Russia and Saudi Arabia back in play, global oil prices climbed to four-month highs overnight.
"The dollar gained along with the Australian dollar as risk appetite improved in the broader financial markets. What was eye-catching was that the dollar rose without support from Japanese officials' jawboning," said Masafumi Yamamoto, chief forex strategist at Mizuho Securities in Tokyo.
The greenback rose as high as 108.905 yen, having climbed from a near 18-month trough around 107.63 set on Monday.
The yen has mostly brushed off recent comments by Japanese officials warning that a rapid appreciation by the currency was unwelcome.
The euro rose to 123.85 yen, putting further distance from a three-year low of 122.085 set last month.
The Canadian dollar hovered just under a nine-month peak, having rallied along with other commodity currencies such as the Australian dollar on higher oil prices.
Canada's loonie stood at C$1.2760 per USD, not far from the overnight high of C$1.2750 - a level last seen in July.
Also helping the currency, the Bank of Canada is widely expected to hold interest rates at 0.5 percent following its meeting on Wednesday.
After a run of better-than-expected economic data at the start of the year, the central bank is also likely to raise its growth forecasts.
Other commodity currencies were also firmer with the Australian dollar up 0.4 percent at $0.7711, nearing its 2016 peak of $0.7723 set a few weeks ago.
The Aussie extended gains as upbeat China trade data favoured risk appetite.
Chinese exports in March rose a much stronger-than-expected 11.5 percent, the first increase since June and largest gain since February 2015.
The Norwegian crown pulled back slightly to 8.1718 per dollar after advancing to a six-month high of 8.1225 on Tuesday.
The euro was subdued in contrast.
The common currency eased 0.2 percent to $1.1369 after turning around from a six-month peak of $1.1465.
That helped the dollar index climb back above 94.000, from a near eight-month low of 93.627.
"Given that the market is quite short USD against the EUR and JPY, and with US inflation data also likely to be on the firm side on Thursday, we expect the USD's corrective recovery against the core majors to extend a little further this week," analysts at BNP Paribas wrote in a note to clients.
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