Reuters: US Dollar Report: FOREX-Spain budget lifts euro but gains seen limited

Reuters: US Dollar Report Reuters.com is your source for breaking news, business, financial and investing news, including personal finance and stocks. Reuters is the leading global provider of news, financial information and technology solutions to the world's media, financial institutions, businesses and individuals. // via fulltextrssfeed.com

FOREX-Spain budget lifts euro but gains seen limited Sep 28th 2012, 08:40 Fri Sep 28, 2012 4:40am EDT * Spain's budget soothes market, lifts euro * Gains may be limited with Moody's review on Spain due * Uncertainty over Spain aid request remains * Dollar falls to 2-week low versus yen By Jessica Mortimer LONDON, Sept 28 (Reuters) - The euro rose against the dollar on Friday, recovering from a two-week low, after Spain unveiled a budget that many saw as laying the groundwork for an application for financial aid. Analysts said the euro's gains may be limited as long as uncertainty persisted over when and whether Spain will request a bailout. Longer-term, concerns Spain would be unable to implement its budget plans and bring down its deficit could weigh on the single currency. A bailout request by Spain is a precondition for the European Central Bank to start buying its debt to bring down its borrowing costs. Analysts and traders said this would lift the euro, but Spain has appeared reluctant to take that step. The euro was up 0.15 percent at $1.2929, one cent above Thursday's two-week low of $1.2828. More gains could see it target last week's peak of $1.31729. "Risk appetite is coming back after the Spain budget," said Dag Muller, technical analyst at SEB, but he did not expect it to last. "It will translate into a fresh high for euro/dollar beyond $1.3173 and then the market will start to wobble". Madrid announced a detailed plan for economic reforms and a budget based mainly on spending cuts rather than tax measures, in what many analyst saw as an effort to pre-empt the conditions for a bailout. The euro is up 2.1 percent on the quarter, thanks largely to expectations that Spain's borrowing costs will be brought down when the ECB starts buying Spanish debt. Trade on Friday was expected to be impacted by month-end rebalancing flows. Citi said they would be negative for the dollar. MORE HURDLES Moody's rating agency is due to review Spain's sovereign rating by the end of this month and may downgrade it to junk status, while the Spanish government is also due to publish its full evaluation of the banking sector on Friday. "I expect the euro to gradually decline. There's a risk of credit downgrade on Spain. The talk between Greece and the troika may get nowhere. And the euro zone economy will be fragile," said Minori Uchida, chief currency analyst at the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ in Tokyo. On Thursday, ratings agency Egan-Jones cut Spain's sovereign rating further into junk status, citing the country's banks and struggling regional governments. The euro faces chart resistance at $1.2960, the 38.2 percent retracement of its Sept. 17-27 slide. The 200-day moving average around $1.2825 is expected to serve as solid support, however. "It's positive that Spain is laying the groundwork for a bailout. But we still hear disharmony between the euro's 'northern league' and the south," said Ayako Sera, senior market economist at Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank in Toyko. The Spanish budget goes to parliament on Saturday and debates could last weeks. Spain's 17 autonomous regions still must present budgets and find an additional 5 billion euros in adjustments to meet overall public deficit reduction goals. The euro rose 0.1 percent to 100.27 yen, recovering from Thursday's two-week low of 99.64. But the dollar slipped to 77.44, its lowest in two weeks, weighed down by Japanese repatriation at the end of financial half year on Sept. 30. Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints

You are receiving this email because you subscribed to this feed at blogtrottr.com. If you no longer wish to receive these emails, you can unsubscribe from this feed, or manage all your subscriptions