Despite another standoff in the Greek debt debacle, the Euro had earlier managed to edge higher versus the US Dollar but those gains were short lived. The common currency is still extremely volatile and remains under pressure as negotiations get under way again. For several weeks now, Greece has been in negotiations with its creditors, attempting to thrash out a deal whereby they’d receive cash to avoid default in exchange for additional reforms. In the absence of a deal there remains the possibility that Greece might be compelled to leave the Euro-area. Later today, leaders of the European Union will meet once again in Brussels to hopefully work out a deal.
As reported at 11:25 am (BDT) in London, the EUR/USD pair was trading at $1.1197, down 0.05%; the pair was trading today in a range of $1.1153 to $1.1225. The range is even tighter for the EUR/GBP pair which is currently trading at 0.7125 Pence; the pair’s range is between 0.7112 Pence at the lend end and 0.7149 Pence at the high.
Consumer Spending in Focus
Markets will focus on today’s release of US consumer spending data which would give investors more data to gauge the likely next move of the Federal Reserve Bank. As the US economy is driven by the American consumer, spending patterns are a key indicator of sentiment. An upbeat reading today could raise expectations of a rate hike sooner rather than later.
