Euro Retreats from 1-month High as Optimism Wanes

By: Barbara Zigah

The Euro gained some ground in the Asian trading session after taking a fall on Monday when Germany’s policymakers threw cold water on a quick resolution to the Eurozone crisis. Analysts some the Euro short covering appears to now be petering out, and the Euro has regained ground following a 1% decline on Monday. As reported at 1:15 p.m. (JST) in Tokyo, the Euro was trading against the U.S. Dollar at $1.3780, a gain of 0.3% from Monday’s New York trade, but remains off the 1-month peak of$1.3914 struck on the EBS trading platform on Monday. Most analysts expect to see some weakening now of the common currency.

On Monday, Wolfgang Schaeuble, the Finance Minister of Germany, said that the upcoming E.U. summit would not provide the “definitive solution” that markets are waiting for. One corporate banking analyst agrees that the meting outcome will likely lack plan specifics but that, generally, the policymakers will at least have come up with a plan to shore up Eurozone’s capital ratios.

Elsewhere, short covering also helped provide a boost to the Australian Dollar, which edged 0.4% higher against the U.S. Dollar to trade at $1.0218. The Aussie slipped by as much as 1.7% on Monday. Chinese data releases were largely in line with expectations and confirm that Chinese growth is moderating as desired by the Beijing government.