By Gina Lee

Investing.com – The dollar was up on Wednesday morning in Asia. While the Japanese yen continues to slide, investors are slowly turning to more risky assets as rising commodity prices drive market movements.

This chart tracks the greenback’s performance against a basket currency by tracking it at 0.01%, 98.530 as of 12:21PM ET (4:21 GMT)

This pair rose by 0.28%, to 121.13.

In comparison, the pair fell 0.08 to 0.7461. The couple dropped 0.08 to 0.6957.

This pair grew by 0.3% to 6.3686, and 0.14% to 1.3282.

Australian dollars have gained 8% since March 2015, when they reached their highest level against the yen. After gaining 0.95% overnight, it reached a high of four and a half months in early trade. Overnight, the dollar gained 1.1% against the Japanese currency and the yen dropped to 121.4 dollars.

According to ANZ analysts speaking to Reuters, gains in equities as well as commodities led to the breaking of resistance for $0.745 by the Australian dollar. They also said that global risk sentiment continues to drive Australian currency’s outlook.

U.S. shares and Asia Pacific shares rose on Wednesday with investors largely ignoring concerns over the economic consequences of the war in Ukraine. Soaring commodity prices will negatively impact the yen due to Japan’s reliance on imported oil and will widen the country’s trade deficit.

“USDJPY is going nowhere but up,” TD Securities analyst told Reuters. He pointed out the differences between U.S.-Japanese rates as well as the vulnerability to continuing shocks in commodities.

The benchmark U.S. 10-year yields rose by 2.4026% to Wednesday’s Asian session. The U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell spoke on Monday to support them, signaling that he would increase interest rates more than 25 basis point at future policy meetings.

Already, 0.5% has been added by the central bank to its current interest rate. This was announced during the previous week.

“A lot of Fed speakers are joining Powell’s aggressive hiking bandwagon,” ING analysts reported to Reuters.

Powell will be speaking at the BIS Innovation Summit later that day. European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde and Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey are also among the summit’s speakers.

However, increasing U.S. yields have little impact on the dollar. Investors believe much of this increase has already affected the price.

The pound hit its highest level against the dollar in nearly three weeks, with investors’ focus on U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak’s “spring statement” on the budget due later in the day. British inflation data including price indexes and the price indexes are due to be released later today.

The bitcoin price was close to $42,400. This is holding onto its overnight gains. Ethereum traded just below $3,000.