adminoverheating.
The single currency fetched 124,63 yen and US$1,3494 in Tokyo morning trade, against 124,28 yen and US$1,3503 in New York on Monday. The greenback gained at 92,35 yen from 92,11 yen in US trading.
Concerns over political uncertainty in Italy and Spain pressured euro-dollar trade, with investors watching to see if it breaks below the US$1,34 level, said Junichi Ishikawa, market analyst at IG Securities in Tokyo.
“If support is maintained, we could see risk appetite returning on confidence in the eurozone’s economic recovery,” Ishikawa told Dow Jones Newswires.
Markets were jolted after Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy was pressured to resign amid a growing corruption scandal, while in Italy, the party of former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi showed solid gains in polls ahead of national elections later this month.
Selling pressure was also stoked after French Finance Minister Pierre Moscovici said on Sunday the euro was “perhaps too strong in some regards”.
The minister later told AFP that he was not seeking to “launch an offensive” to drive down the euro, but added “it seems completely legitimate to me that there be a debate on the question of proper global exchange rates in international forums”.
The resurgent currency on Friday soared above US$1,36 and hit its highest level against the dollar since mid-November 2011, as a key US jobs report reinforced expectations that the Federal Reserve will maintain its ultra-loose monetary policy for the foreseeable future. – AFP.
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