Market News

The Euro steadied against the greenback in Asian trade as short-term focus is directed to Washington, D.C. where Federal Reserve head Ben Bernanke will be testifying before the U.S. Congress tomorrow.

The Euro continued to hold close to a 2-year low against the U.S. Dollar following Italy’s credit rating cut by Moody’s late yesterday.

The U.S. Dollar briefly rose against the Japanese Yen in the Asian trading session, following the Bank of Japan’s announcement that it would make no changes to its current monetary policy except for some minor tweaking to its asset purchase program.

The Euro continued to hold close to a 2-year low versus the U.S. Dollar as investors consider that the German court which is to decide on the legal usage of the Eurozone Stability Mechanism won’t rule in favor of broader implementation.

As analyst had expected and as markets had feared, the E.U. finance ministers meeting yielded no definitive outcome and highlighted only the shortcomings of the most recent summit.

In the Asian session, the Euro had earlier dropped to 2-year trough against the U.S. Dollar, but has since steadied and halted the downtrend.

Yesterday, the European Central Bank did as analysts expected it would and announced a 25 basis points rate cut of their benchmark lending rate; markets had been hopeful that the central bank would offer more though, and were disappointed as a result.

The Euro and the Pound Sterling are both under pressure as investors speculate that the European Central Bank and the Bank of England will take up a more accommodative stance later today.

The common currency edged lower against the greenback in Asian trading on Wednesday as investors speculate that the European Central Bank will take a more dovish stance at their rate setting meeting tomorrow.

Both the U.S. Dollar and the Euro slipped in Asian trade as dismal economic data raised investors’ expectations of a more accommodative stance from both the Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank.

The Euro slipped in Asian trading today, giving up some of the gains made on Friday, which wound up being the largest single day rally in nearly eight months and attributed primarily to the euphoria following positive news from the E.U. Summit.

The Euro is poised to have its largest 1-day rise in nearly eight months as E.U. leaders are expected to announce later today that they have agreed to create a common supervisory body which will oversee the Eurozone’s banks and permit them to recapitalize directly via the EFSF and not through governmental channels.

The common currency remains on hold close to a 3-week trough against the U.S. Dollar but a sell off is capped as investors are cautiously optimistic of a surprise to the upside from the E.U. Summit which starts later today.

The common currency edged higher in Asian trading today after striking a 2-week trough yesterday, but analysts say that gains were capped as hopes that the upcoming E.U. summit could offer any positive outcome were dashed.

The Euro was holding close to a 2-week trough against the U.S. Dollar during the Asian trading session as investors’ expectations of a fruitful outcome to the E.U. summit fade.