By: Barbara Zigah

The Euro continues to hold close to a 2-month peak with investors hopeful that the Greek government will finally agree to the conditional measures necessary to obtain the second bailout loan which would prevent a disorderly default. As reported at 12:10 p.m. (JST) in Tokyo the Euro was trading against the greenback at $1.3252, a decline of 0.1% but still close to the 2-month peak of $1.3270 which was struck on the EBS trading platform yesterday. Analysts say that the Euro’s bounce was largely a result of a short-positioning squeeze as opposed to an optimistic view of the Eurozone.

Greece’s newest deadline is today, though a rally in the common currency is likely to be limited in scope. One analyst points out that the markets have already buoyed the currency on the rumor, the fact will only give it a bit more of a bounce. The first line of resistance is near $1.3334, the 100-day moving average.

The U.S. Dollar traded up against the Japanese Yen, moving 0.3% higher to 76.97 Japanese Yen, and well off the 3-month low struck last week. The Japanese government confirmed earlier this week that they had been engaging in covert intervention exercises to bring the currency’s value down.