Reuters: US Dollar Report: FOREX-Euro pressured as debt crisis jitters resurface

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FOREX-Euro pressured as debt crisis jitters resurface Mar 29th 2012, 10:45 Thu Mar 29, 2012 6:45am EDT * Euro falls, stop-loss orders triggered below $1.33 * Italy auction solid but market nervous on Spain * Yen firms on flows linked to year-end demand By Nia Williams LONDON, March 29 (Reuters) - The euro fell against the dollar on Thursday as concerns about contagion from the euro zone debt crisis overshadowed a solid Italian bond auction, and looked set to stay pressured ahead of talks to boost the region's financial firewall on Friday. Traders said automatic stop-loss sell orders were triggered on the euro's break below $1.33 after the European Commission's economic sentiment index dipped by 0.1 percent, with sentiment in industry worsening markedly. Despite decent demand at an auction of Italian five- and 10-year bonds, Italian and Spanish yields rose, dragging the euro to a session low of $1.3273. Most analysts said the euro was unlikely to break below its recent range roughly between $1.30 and $1.35, with market players expecting a euro zone finance ministers' meeting to approve bolstering the region's rescue fund. But the shared currency remained vulnerable to concerns of contagion spreading to the euro zone's larger economies, and a general strike in Spain and the Spanish budget on Friday fanned bearish sentiment. "Given we are below $1.33 this is certainly a psychologically important mark which may be the beginning of a more sustained down move," said Caroline Hecht, currency strategist at Commerzbank. "If euro zone finance ministers decide the rescue package will be enlarged that will be calming for the market but we expect the risk premia on peripheral countries' yields to remain quite high." Expectations over the size of the rescue fund have been tempered by European Central Bank governing council member and Bundesbank chief Jens Weidmann who warned that raising the firewall around stricken euro zone members would only buy time. Traders said comments from the OECD that euro zone nations are falling far behind the United States and Canada as a fragile recovery takes root in advanced economies also weighed on the single currency. YEN FIRMS BROADLY The euro also fell nearly 1 percent on the day against the yen to 109.21, with the Japanese currency gaining broadly on demand linked to the end of Japan's financial year. A second straight day of losses in Chinese stockmarkets and a below-forecast increase in new orders for U.S. durable goods on Wednesday knocked some investors' appetite to take on risk, and contributed to demand for the safe-haven yen. The last day for spot trading in the business year to March 31 was on Wednesday but real-money flows from Tokyo kept major currencies under pressure against the yen, with exporters selling the dollar in large amounts, market players said. The dollar dropped 0.7 percent to a session low of 82.25 yen , triggering reported stop loss orders on a break of 82.35/40. But many strategists said the dollar should reassert itself against the yen as long as upcoming U.S. data does not bear out a recent rise in concerns about growth. "There's definitely a lot of month-end and quarter-end rebalancing but the bigger story we are seeing is some bond buying and equity selling in the last 24 hours," said Geoff Kendrick, currency strategist at Nomura. "But assuming U.S. economic numbers next week are okay we could see U.S. yields back up to the top of their recent range and that could be very dollar/yen supportive." In general, U.S. data prior to the durable goods numbers had been heading in the right direction, but those latest figures, allied to a warning from Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernanke, have prompted nerves which most analysts say are unfounded. Non-farm payrolls, one of the most closely watched sets of economic figures, are released next Friday. Before that, U.S. initial jobless claims and a final reading of final quarter 2011 GDP were scheduled for 1230 GMT on Thursday. The dollar index reversed earlier losses to rise 0.15 percent to 79.236, moving further away from a four-week low of 78.77 hit earlier in the week. Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints

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