By: Barbara Zigah

The Euro continues to be under pressure in Asian trading, following yesterday’s rise in bond yields at the Italian and Spanish debt auctions, evidence which highlights the challenges that the Eurozone faces even as it tries to reassure investors that the debt crisis is containable. Yesterday, on first news that the Italian government would have a new leader, the market helped to rally the common currency, but following the outcome a short while later of the Italian bond market, with 5 year yields pushing to Euro-era highs, the Euro quickly headed to the bottom end of a recently struck trading range.

As reported at 10:40 a.m. (JST) in Tokyo, the Euro slipped 0.1% against the greenback, trading at $1.3618; the fall follows a 0.8% decline in Monday’s trading session. Analysts point out that the Euro now holds close to the lower end of the trading range of $1.3484 to $1.4248, which was established in late October. The Euro will remain vulnerable given the Eurozone crisis, but could find support below $1.36.

The common currency also fell against the safe haven Japanese Yen, trading 0.1%lower to 104.97 Yen and hovering near the 1-month low of 104.74 Yen which was struck last week.