Among the dollar's 16 most-traded counterparts tracked by Bloomberg, the yen appreciated the most, strengthening 3.82 percent, followed by Singapore's dollar at 1.66 percent. The biggest loser was Brazil's real, which depreciated 4.27 percent, data compiled by Bloomberg show.
The euro weakened 0.78 percent against the dollar. The 17- nation currency was the second-worst performer among the 10 developed-nation exchange rates tracked Bloomberg Correlation- Weighted Currency Indexes, losing 1.05 percent. Sweden's krona depreciated 2 percent.
Currency Forecasts
Currency analysts forecast the euro will end the second quarter at $1.29, 2.7 percent lower than where it is now. The yen will be at 82 per dollar by the end of June, or 2.8 percent weaker, according to strategists' estimates.
Greece's debt is 165 percent of gross domestic product, while that of Italy is 120 percent and Ireland and Portugal's is 108 percent, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Germany's ratio is 81 percent and Spain's is 69 percent.
"I'm not convinced that Europe is OK," Stephen Mahoney, a money manager in Philadelphia at Glenmede Investment Management, which oversees more than $20 billion, said April 27 in a telephone interview. "There's always going to be contagion."
Mahoney said he favors investment-grade debt and bonds of industrial corporations. He is "underweight" financial-company debt, meaning he owns a smaller percentage of the securities than is contained in his benchmark index.
Commodities, as measured by the S&P GSCI Total Return Index, fell for the second consecutive month after losing 2.4 percent in March. Sugar was the biggest loser.
Sugar, Gasoline
Sugar plunged 11 percent on the ICE Futures U.S. in New York, the biggest monthly decline since September, while the 6.1 percent drop in gasoline on the New York Mercantile Exchange was the first since November. Cattle futures on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange slipped to a nine-month low on April 24, as the U.S. reported its first case of mad cow disease since 2006.