Euro Higher as Greek Deal Pushes Ahead

The Euro touched briefly on a 1-month peak against the U.S. Dollar during the Asian trading session earlier today on news that international lenders have agreed that Greece will be permitted a new debt target. According to the news brief, Greece will be required to reduce its debt by €40 billion, equivalent to 124% of GDP, by 2020. That was one of the remaining issues to be considered among the Troika participants, and paves the way for the release of the next bailout tranche which is needed by mid-December.

As reported at 11:40 a.m. (JST) in Tokyo, the EUR/USD pair was trading at $1.3010 at one point, before retreating to $1.2981, a loss of 0.1% from overnight trading in New York. Markets had already generally priced in just such an eventuality, so there was not too much reaction to the news nor was it long-lived. According to one forex strategist in Australia there is simply too much dismal economic data out of the Eurozone which is weighing on the Euro.

Despite the looming threat of aggressive easing by a new government, the Japanese Yen appears to be back on the upswing and the recent slide halted. The EUR/JPY pair was steady at 106.44 Japanese Yen, off the 7-month peak of 107.135 Yen struck in the previous session. The USD/JPY pair was trading lower at 0.1% to 82.00 Japanese Yen, off the 7½-month peak of 82.84 Yen struck last Thursday. Some analysts are predicting that the dollar could test highs set earlier in the year but doubt that the greenback’s rally will prove enduring.