By: Barbara Zigah

The common currency Euro remains steady following yesterday’s fall from a 1-month peak after Jean-Claude Juncker, the president of the Euro Group, commented that in his opinion the Euro was overvalued. The Euro is finding support from investor speculation that the European Central Bank will announce a forthcoming rate hike when it meets on Thursday; in the absence of such an announcement, analysts suggest that the common currency will struggle to climb further.

As reported at 2:56 p.m. (JST) in Tokyo trading, the Euro was trading 0.2% higher against the U.S. Dollar at $1.4600; in yesterday’s session it had struck a 1-month high of $1.4659. Since May 23rd the Euro has gained better than 4%; analysts say that the most immediate target is $1.4732, and if surmountable the next target would be $1.4939. Most analysts believe that the ECB would need to definitively signal a rate hike before that can be achieved.

The Greek saga is also still weighing on the Euro, though currently it’s finding some support from expectations that the country will be receiving the 5th tranche payment from the IMF, necessary in order to avoid default.