EUR/USD succumbed to heavy sales at the 16:00 GMT fixing once again today, slipping to fresh trend lows at 1.4219. Rising US interest rates helped fuel the greenback’s rise as did ongoing concerns about Greece’s creditworthiness in the wake of mild Moody’s downgrade (Moody’s continues to rate Greece two-notches higher than do S&P and Fitch).

A legal paper written by the ECB staff sparked some concern as the subject was the departure of a country from EMU and the EU and their ability to continue to use the euro as their currency. With the market openly speculating about the likes of Greece or Spain leaving the euro zone, the ECB document did nothing to settle jitters.

USD/JPY was boosted by the higher US Treasury yields, reaching 91.86 intraday and closing near the highs.

GBP/USD was sold aggressively today with traders increasingly concerned that upcoming parliamentary elections in the UK could result in a hung parliament. The Tory lead in opinion poles has been shrinking in recent weeks.

AUD/USD extended its slide as low as 0.8752 before stabilizing but rallies were limited. We close at 0.8765. Traders noted heavy sales of AUD/CAD today, helping the Loonie ward off USD strength better than some of the other commodity-based currencies. USD/CAD ends at 1.0577.