By: Barbara Zigah

With investor hopes still pinned on the Eurozone’s leadership to craft a solution to the ongoing debt crisis saga, the common currency moved higher against the U.S. Dollar in Asian trading, consolidating Monday’s gains. Analysts believe, however, that markets will find it difficult to keep the Euro buoyed unless some concrete action is provided. As reported at 11:55 a.m. (JST) in Tokyo, the Euro was trading at $1.3358, a gain of 0.1% following yesterday’s 0.5% rise. The Euro had seen swift gains on the now-discredited media report that the International Monetary Fund intended to bail-out financially strapped Italy. Market players may have been looking for any reason to cut their bearish positions on commodity-linked currencies.

Ahead for the Eurozone is the upcoming meeting of the European Union’s finance ministers which will take place in the coming days. The hope is that they will finally approve the details of the Eurozone’s emergency bailout mechanism, the EFSF, which will increase the facility’s firepower. The group will also discuss the next tranche payment for Greece, which is expected to be released.

An analyst in London also says that investors should watch for Germany and France’s leaders to provide details of the proposal that they have been working on behind closed doors, which is likely to call for tighter monetary integration of the European Union. An Italian bond auction to be held later today will set the stage for the markets’ direction.