By: Barbara Zigah

In Asian trading, the Euro slipped against the U.S. Dollar following a weekend of political setbacks in the Eurozone left the single currency on shaky ground. As reported at 2:22 p.m. (JST) in Tokyo, the Euro was trading down nearly 1% against the greenback to $1.3664; it also fell 0.8% against the safe haven Japanese Yen to 105.06 Yen. The Euro briefly slipped below the $1.3664 support level, but more support lies close to $1.3599.

This weekend’s meeting of the Eurozone Finance Ministers fell far short of investors’ expectations, and a regional German election defeat for the Chancellor worsened an already tense situation. One forex strategist in Singapore believes it will only get worse this week for the Euro.

For the U.S. Dollar, the outlook is a little more complicated; the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank holds its 2-day policy meeting beginning tomorrow, and investors’ uncertainty as to the outcome could put some additional pressure on the U.S. Dollar, which would at least give some support to the Euro. Earlier, however, the U.S. Dollar saw broad gains against the Japanese Yen and Swiss Franc, rising to 76.87 Japanese Yen and 0.8823 Swiss Francs, a gain of 0.1% and 0.7%, respectively. The greenback was also higher against the Pound Sterling, trading at an 8-month peak of $1.5685.