The Australian dollar retreated from a 2-1/2-month high against the yen on Tuesday, but remained buoyant as rising stock markets tempted investors to riskier assets. Some uncertainty remained however, after the Reserve Bank of Australia offered few clues about the pace and extent of future rate cuts in the release of the minutes for its March policy meeting, when it held rates steady at 3.25 percent.
"The Aussie is outperforming now while there is better risk appetite among investors," said Patrick Bennett, a strategist at Societe Generale in Hong Kong. "But I dont see this as a convincing uptrend for the Aussie against the US dollar." "Economic data is still negative and we dont believe the global economy is out of the woods yet," Bennett said.
The Aussie pulled back yen to 65.05 yen from a high of 65.36 hit offshore, but held above 64.46 seen here late Monday. It retreated against a weaker US dollar $0.6607 from a one-month high of $0.6637 struck offshore, but still up from Mondays $0.6563.
Some analysts note the Aussie has been surprisingly firm in recent days, helped in part by higher stock markets, even though economic data from around the world continues to paint a deteriorating outlook for the world economy.