Euro off 10-week High against Greenback as Investors Await Stress Test Results

By: Barbara Zigah

The common currency Euro slipped from a 10-week peak yesterday, but still managed to edge up versus the U.S. Dollar in Asian trading today. Investors are taking profits in advance of the release of the results from the Euro-zone financial system stress tests conducted earlier. As reported at 2:56 p.m. (JST) in Tokyo, the Euro traded against the greenback at $1.2885, a gain of almost .1% from yesterday’s late trading in the United States; on Tuesday, the Euro traded briefly at $1.3029 on the EBS trading platform, the highest trade since mid-May. Market players commented that so long as the Euro rally holds they will continue to profit from it; since early June the common currency has gained more than 8% against the greenback.

Analysts predict that any Euro losses will be limited, due in part to the weakness in the U.S. currency, but also because there is a feeling in the market that the stress tests’ results will assuage worries over how the Euro-zone financial system would handle any potential economic deterioration within the zone. Investors have suggested that they want to trim their holdings in the Euro, but acknowledge that as long as the soft data from the United States keeps coming, they would rather reduce their holdings in the U.S. unit.