Euro Continues Upswing

By: Barbara Zigah

Earlier in the Asian session, the Euro struck a 2-week peak against the U.S. Dollar as recent clearer signs of stabilization in the Eurozone helped to support the common currency. As reported at 1:56 p.m. (JST) in Tokyo, the Euro was trading up 0.3% to $1.3269, leveling off from the earlier high of $1.3285, a level not seen since March 8th. One currency analyst based in Singapore says that short sellers are driving the market right now; the Euro could see some resistance at the $1.3280 to $1.3300 over t he near term, but a breach of the latter could see higher levels tested. The Euro is also finding some support on news that the yield spread between U.S. and German 2-year debt is narrowing, an indicator that markets’ faith in the European bond market is slowly being restored.

On the EBS trading platform, the Japanese Yen also earlier touched on a 5-month low against the common currency, trading at one point at 111.15 Japanese Yen; most recently, the EUR/JPY pair was at 111.06 Yen a gain of 0.3% from late New York trading. The U.S. Dollar was steady against the Japanese currency, trading at 83.71 Japanese Yen, slightly off the 11-month peak of 84.187 Japanese Yen which was struck last week.