Euro Gets a Broad Boost and Yen Fades

In Asia, the Euro struck a multi-months peak against the Japanese Yen on support that the Greek loan deal might soon be unconditionally approved. While there had been an initial Euro sell-off yesterday, the German Chancellor reported that a deal was likely to be struck by Monday ensuring that the deadline for the Greek tranche payment is likely to be met.

As reported at 12:03 p.m. (JST) in Tokyo the EUR/JPY pair was last trading at 105.04 Japanese Yen, a gain of 0.1% from overnight trading in New York; earlier in the session the pair had traded at 106.27 Japanese Yen, a 6½ month peak. Earlier, the USD/JPY pair was trading at a high of 82.59 Japanese Yen on the EBS trading platform, a level not seen for the greenback since early April.

Investors appear to be giving the Japanese Yen a fairly wide berth on expectations that the likely incoming Japanese government will make every attempt to significantly devalue the Yen. Opinion polls are putting the leader of the Liberal Democratic Party significantly ahead for the mid-December election in Japan; the party has demanded unlimited easing of the currency until a specific low inflation target is achieved.

The EUR/USD pair was also higher, trading at $1.2846, a gain of 0.1% and a marked rise from yesterday’s trough of $1.2735. The U.S. Dollar is under some pressure as worries over the fiscal cliff continue to weigh.