Euro Up, Italy’s Monti Assuages Worry

The Euro edged higher versus the U.S. Dollar during the Asian trading session as Mario Monti, the Italian Prime Minister, sought to assuage investors’ concerns about Italy’s fiscal outlook. The Prime Minister confirmed that he would be stepping down, but said that the resignation would only take place after next year’s budget has been passed. A February election is likely to take place, however, and the concern will surely be who will step in to replace him, especially now that the former Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi, is hinting at bidding for the job yet again. Analysts don’t believe that anyone, including Berlusconi, will have the ability to manipulate fiscal policy as well as Mario Monti was able to.

As reported at 2:15 p.m. (JST) in Tokyo, the EUR/USD pair was trading higher at 1.2947, a gain of 0.5% and the first rise in four days. Earlier the Euro had been under pressure, weighed down by a rise in Italian bond yields and was trading at a session low of $1.2929. The Euro was lower against the safe haven Japanese Yen trading at 106.52 Yen, a loss of 0.1% on the day and the third consecutive day of declines. Earlier, the EUR/JPY pair had traded at 105.94 Yen, a 2-week low.