By: Barbara Zigah
The common currency edged higher in Asian trading today following news from Germany and France that policymakers there will provide a new and comprehensive plan which will shore up under-capitalized Eurozone banks. In a meeting between France’s Nicolas Sarkozy and Germany’s Angela Merkel, the two discussed not only how best to recapitalize the Eurozone banks but how to move forward on the debt crisis in Greece and grow the Eurozone economy. In spite of the pledge by the two heads, markets remain wary as disappointments have been frequent. If details are released from the German-French meeting, the Euro could get a much needed boost, as markets have been concerned with the absence of concrete data out of any recent meetings.
As reported at 12:41 p.m. (JST) in Tokyo, the Euro rose 0.5% against the U.S. Dollar, trading at $1.3451 and of the 9-month trough of $1.3145 struck last week on the EBS trading platform. Analysts say that the Euro gained traction after it broke through $1.3423, an hourly resistance level. Resistance is still seen near $1.3483, however.
With the news, there was some renewed interest in higher risk currencies, with the Australian Dollar pushing 0.5% higher against the greenback, trading at $0.9813 and pulled off the 1-year trough of $0.9388 struck last week.