Currencies such as AUD and EUR extended their recent trend highs in early Asian trading, but many of the JPY crosses tied to those currencies were unable to make fresh trend highs, attracting a bout of profit-taking that saw EUR, AUD, NZD and GBP gradually ease through the course of the Asian session. Tokyo was absent once again for the Golden Week holiday, keeping volume subdued but also resulting in a dearth of Japanese investment demand in the crosses. The RBA kept rates steady as expected at 3.00% but acknowledged the improved growth in China and appeared to take a more moderate outlook on rates, prompting a fresh bounce on AUD-USD and AUD-JPY but they fell short of revisiting the morning highs. Late in the session, comments from SNB’s Hildebrand warning about CHF strength resulted in a bounce in EUR-CHF from 1.5072 to 1.5100. EUR-USD eased from highs of 1.3438 in early Asia to 1.3359. USD-JPY was pressured by the JPY cross sales, easing from 98.94 to 98.62. Asian stock markets were mostly higher but pared morning gains on profit-taking. Oil consolidated Monday’s gains above $54.00. U.S. Treasury yields maintained gains with little trading due to Tokyo’s absence.