Swiss franc under pressure in Asia

The Swiss franc and other safe-haven currencies remained under pressure on Tuesday while commodity currencies held firm after a solid performance by riskier assets the previous day, although persistent worries about the global economy mean the tide could turn at any moment.
The euro also held near a two-month high hit on Monday and some traders think it may have broken above its holding pattern of the last few months, although many market players said overwhelming debt problems in the eurozone were likely to keep the single currency in check.
A combination of factors, including a 14 percent rally in Greek stocks sparked by merger news in the country's battered banking sector and better-than-expected US consumer spending data, helped to boost appetite for risk. This saw the Swiss franc, already hit by news that UBS was considering charging a fee to deter clients from hoarding the safe-haven currency, fall further across the board.
The dollar edged up 0.3 percent to 0.8185 Swiss francs after reaching a five-week high of 0.8239 overnight. The euro was at 1.1890 francs , not far off a seven-week high of 1.1970 francs touched on Monday. The yen, also highly sought after in times of market stress, lost ground as well. The dollar edged up to 76.86 yen , pulling further away from an all-time low around 75.94 set earlier in the month, as market players stayed wary of yen-selling intervention by Japanese authorities.
The best performers were commodity currencies such as the Australian dollar, which stormed past a series of technical resistance levels including its 55-day and 100-day moving averages to reach a four-week high at $1.0686. That has cleared the way for the Aussie to test $1.0809, a 76.4 percent retracement of its decline from $1.1081 to $0.9927 from late July to early August. The New Zealand dollar has gained 1.4 percent since the start of the week, climbing to a one-month peak around $0.8526 from $0.8460 in New York, with stop-loss buying triggered above $0.8510.
The dollar's index against a basket of six currencies stood at 73.65 , down 0.1 percent on the day and just above strong support around 73.40-50. Minutes of the Fed's August 9 meeting due out later on Tuesday and speeches by Fed officials Charles Evans and Narayana Kocherlakota will be closely watched as market players looked for any hints on what the divided central bank will do at its policy meeting on September 20-21.