By: Barbara Zigah

As market players moved to cover short positions in the U.S. Dollar following last week’s slide, the common currency Euro slipped in Asian trading though managing to hold onto most of Friday’s gains. As reported at 2:29 p.m. (JST) in Tokyo, the Euro was trading 0.2% lower against the greenback, at $1.4291, pulling back from resistance at $1.4327, the 55-day moving average.

Late last week, the common currency gained more than 1% against the greenback, the largest single day’s percentile rise in nearly a month, following the release of unexpectedly soft data from the United States. While some analysts were surprised at how quickly the U.S. Dollar tanked, most agree that the soft data and the decline in treasury yields weighed fairly heavily on the U.S. currency.

The common currency is also finding some support from the Greek government, which on Friday reported that it believed they could avoid restructuring and would be able to repay their debts in full, provided that they worked within the measures called for under their austerity plan. As U.S. and U.K. markets are closed today, most traders don’t expect much volatility, though any remarks about the Eurozone’s finances will likely trigger some.