Euro Firms on Stabilization Signs

By: Barbara Zigah

The EUR/USD pair steadied at $1.3235, just off a 1-week high of $1.3266 struck yesterday, helped there by short selling of the U.S. Dollar following news that the ECB bought no sovereign debt last week. The implication there is that the Eurozone bond markets appear to be recovering without ECB support. Nonetheless, currency analysts believe that the divergence of the economies for the Euro-Dollar pair may mean that the Euro will be vulnerable to Dollar advances.

As reported at 1:04 p.m. (JST) in Tokyo, the U.S. Dollar Index, a measure of the greenback’s value versus a weighted basket of major currencies, held close to a 1-week low of 79.354 .DXY before recovering to 79.497 .DXY. Analysts expect that it could receive some support from additional signs of an improving U.S. economy but believe that this may be a consolidation week.

The Australian Dollar dipped against the U.S. Dollar and was recently trading at $1.0578, a loss of 0.3%, on news that BHP Biliton, a global mining firm, reported flattening demand for iron ore from China. China is Australia’s largest single export customer. Yesterday, the head of the Reserve Bank of Australia said at a Hong Kong conference that he expected Asian growth to be suficieint to help bolster the Australian economy.