Euro rises across the board in Asia

The euro edged up across the board on Tuesday after a batch of Chinese economic data calmed some investor worries by showing inflation was not as bad as feared and growth still solid, giving a broad boost to risky assets. The Australian dollar also gained after the Chinese reports showed industrial production and retail sales posting solid growth.
Consumer prices accelerated to a 5.5 percent annual rate in May, slightly higher than the Reuters consensus forecast and the fastest in nearly three years. The euro's intraday rebound took it back above $1.44 to challenge near-term resistance in the $1.4430/50 zone. A clean push through that resistance to the $1.4470/80 area would brighten the single currency's outlook for now, traders said.
The euro was up slightly from late US trade at $1.4442, recovering from a session low of $1.43782 on EBS. The single currency was up 0.2 percent at 1.2088 francs and off a session low of 1.2012, coming close to the record low and stop-loss orders seen near the 1.200 level. The high-yielding Australian dollar was up 0.3 percent at $1.0637, while the Aussie climbed even more against the yen.
Equities and commodities also took heart from the Chinese data and rebounded thanks to some short-covering. The broad MSCI index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan recovered from a three-month low to rise 1.1 percent, while gold and crude oil pushed higher.
The safe-haven Swiss franc held near a record high against the euro, benefiting from the ongoing European debt crisis and being viewed as one of the few major currencies not suffering from debt troubles or the currency debasement of quantitative easing.
The euro managed to climb against the dollar on Monday even as European policymakers try to sort out their differences, especially German officials and the European Central Bank who have clashed over the prospect of a "voluntary" rollover that may avoid triggering a full debt restructuring.
The dollar index, which tracks its performance against a basket of major currencies, dipped to 74.403, off a two-week high of 74.960 struck the previous day. The dollar drifted up to 80.30 yen and back towards Monday's high of 80.70, stabilising around 80.00/81.00 in the past week.