The Euro snapped a 3-day losing streak on Thursday and continues to edge higher during the Asian trading session after the International Monetary Fund supported the efforts of fiscally troubled Eurozone nations which has requested additional time to meet Troika-imposed targets. Christine Lagarde, the managing director of the IMF, said yesterday that she was in favor of giving Spain and Greece more time to meet budget deficit target reductions as to move too quickly would threaten their respective economies too extensively.
The Spanish issue continues to weigh on the common currency, however, and analysts believe the Euro will trade within a tight trading band until the government moves forward with their request for bailout assistance.
As reported at 11:50 a.m. (JST) in Tokyo, the EUR/USD pair was trading at $1.2940, a gain of 0.1% and close to Thursday’s peak of $1.2952 and recovering from the October 1st low of $1.2825.
The Japanese Yen dipped broadly, however, with risk aversion easing to some extent. The USD/JPY pair traded at 78.44 Yen, a gain of 0.2% from late trading in New York. The Dollar found support from jobless claims data which was released yesterday and which showed that new claims fell to a level not seen in more than 4-½ years.
Euro Edges Higher with IMF Boost
Barbara Zigah