The dollar flew to 22-month highs on the yen and 15-week peaks on the euro today in what was seen as a vote of no confidence in Japanese and European policy.
In Tokyo, the end of the fiscal year was expected to release pent up Japanese demand for higher yielding foreign assets, while a sinking domestic economy left little choice but to employ a weaker yen as a life raft for exports.
For the euro, the European Central Bank's procrastination on interest rates was perceived as taking unnecessary risks with economic growth and contrasted negatively with the United States where the Federal Reserve has eased more aggressively than at any time in the last decade.
"Perhaps it's a sign that the market sees the US as the least worst of a bad bunch," said Mr Marshall Gittler, head of Asian currencies at Bank of America.
"The Fed certainly has more policy flexibility than the ECB or the BOJ (Bank of Japan), and hasn't been afraid to use it," he added.
In late afternoon trade yesterday the dollar was getting acclimatised at 124.64 yen after climbing all the way from 123.26 to as high as 124.70, its loftiest level since May 1999.
In contrast, the euro was crawling at $0.8791 after plumbing depths not seen since December around $0.8770.
Only traders' worries about possible intervention, either from the ECB itself or the euro zone's national central banks, put a floor under the currency.
Still dealers reasoned the ECB must have known that its decision not to cut rates would risk sending the euro lower, and had done it anyway, so it might not be that concerned.