Confidence in Greece Lifts Euro

Investors are confident that the European Union’s policymakers won’t allow Greece to go default and as a result had pushed the common currency Euro to a 1-month peak against the U.S. Dollar as well as a 7-month high versus the Japanese Yen. E.U. finance ministers plan to meet later today, the third time in three weeks, to finesse the details which will permit the Troika to release the next installment of the bailout loan which will be used to repay debt payments next month. Both the German Chancellor Angela Merkel and the French Finance Minister Pierre Moscovici concurred that the policy makers are nearing an agreement.

As reported at 11:09 a.m. (JST) in Tokyo, the EUR/USD pair was higher at $1.2958, but coming off of Friday’s 1-month high of $1.2991. The EUR/JPY pair was trading at a high of 107.135 Japanese Yen on the EBS trading platform before giving back some gains and last trading at 106.6895 Yen. Some analysts caution that the Euro is likely to lose any momentum gained, however, as markets have already priced in the likelihood of the Greek bailout payment agreement. The U.S. Dollar Index, which gauges the greenback’s value against other major currencies including the Euro and Yen, held steady near 80.295 .DXY, close to the 3-week low of 80.128 .DXY hit on Friday.