By: Barbara Zigah

A deep divide among the Eurozone’s policymakers has put pressure on the common currency during the Asian trading session, though the Euro has held hard to earlier gains the outlook appears rocky. As reported at 1:19 p.m. (JST) in Tokyo, the Euro was trading most recently at 1.3774, and analysts say support could be found at $1.3700 with resistance at $1.3840. With risk aversion rising, both the Euro and the U.S. Dollar fell against the safe haven Swiss Franc; while the peg prevented the Euro from falling too far but still to 1.2224, a decline of 0.8%, the greenback tumbled 1% at one point in the trading session trading at 0.8849 Swiss Francs on the EBS trading platform before recovering to 0.8888, still a decline of 0.6%.

Some analysts expect that investors will be cautious heading into the weekend E.U. summit, with hopes pinned on some credible resolution to the Eurozone’s debt crisis. Insiders don’t expect that a solution will come that quickly, however, but said that a second meeting scheduled for next week could provide the response that markets are waiting for. However, as with past precedent, investors are also bracing for the possibility of disappointment. Currently, the French and German governments are at odds as to how to deal with bank recapitalization issues, and increasing the strength of the Eurozone’s EFSF bailout facility.