Investing.com - The euro rose to a session high against the yen on Wednesday, following media reports concerning some details of the European Central Bank’s bond purchasing plan.
EUR/JPY hit 98.89 European afternoon trade, the session high; the pair subsequently consolidated at 98.82 gaining 0.29%.
The pair was likely to find support at 97.97, the session low and resistance at 99.16, the high of August 21 and a seven-week high.
The euro found support after Bloomberg reported that the ECB is planning "unlimited, sterilized" bond buying, without setting bond yield targets. The plan is reported to be focused on government bonds with maturities of up to three years.
The single currency came under pressure earlier in the session, after a report showing that service sector activity in the euro zone contracted at a slightly faster rate than initially estimated in August added to fears that the bloc is set to enter a technical recession in the third quarter.
Markit said that its revised services purchasing managers’ index ticked down to 47.2 in August from a preliminary reading of 47.5, defying expectations to remain unchanged.
Germany's services sector contracted at its fastest rate in three years, with the PMI coming in at 48.3.
A separate report showed that retail sales in the bloc fell 0.2% in July, in line with expectations, bringing the annualized rate of decline to 1.7%.
The euro was higher against the U.S. dollar, with EUR/USD up 0.30% to 1.2604, but remained almost unchanged against sterling, with EUR/GBP dipping 0.01% to 0.7916.
Elsewhere Wednesday, Germany's Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble said the euro zone would be more stable in 2013 and added that the bloc would still exist in the same form as it does now.
EUR/JPY hit 98.89 European afternoon trade, the session high; the pair subsequently consolidated at 98.82 gaining 0.29%.
The pair was likely to find support at 97.97, the session low and resistance at 99.16, the high of August 21 and a seven-week high.
The euro found support after Bloomberg reported that the ECB is planning "unlimited, sterilized" bond buying, without setting bond yield targets. The plan is reported to be focused on government bonds with maturities of up to three years.
The single currency came under pressure earlier in the session, after a report showing that service sector activity in the euro zone contracted at a slightly faster rate than initially estimated in August added to fears that the bloc is set to enter a technical recession in the third quarter.
Markit said that its revised services purchasing managers’ index ticked down to 47.2 in August from a preliminary reading of 47.5, defying expectations to remain unchanged.
Germany's services sector contracted at its fastest rate in three years, with the PMI coming in at 48.3.
A separate report showed that retail sales in the bloc fell 0.2% in July, in line with expectations, bringing the annualized rate of decline to 1.7%.
The euro was higher against the U.S. dollar, with EUR/USD up 0.30% to 1.2604, but remained almost unchanged against sterling, with EUR/GBP dipping 0.01% to 0.7916.
Elsewhere Wednesday, Germany's Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble said the euro zone would be more stable in 2013 and added that the bloc would still exist in the same form as it does now.