Investing.com - The euro moved lower against the U.S. dollar in Asian trade Wednesday, as Greek and European officials grappled with details of the next installment of rescue funds designed to keep Greece from defaulting on its debts.
EUR/USD hit 1.3680 in early Asian trade, the pair’s lowest since Monday; the pair subsequently consolidated at 1.3684, falling 0.13%.
The pair was likely to find support at 1.3500, last Monday’s low, and resistance at 1.3937, last Thursday’s high.
Earlier Tuesday, European Union finance officials said that Greece had made “good progress” in a second round of talks with the EU and the International Monetary Fund focused on averting Greek default.
Greek Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos stressed that remaining within the euro-zone was an “irreversible and fundamental national choice,” easing market concerns that the nation might consider exiting the regional common currency
New reports outlined a time schedule for the so-called “troika”, the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund, to meet again in Athens in early October to evaluate Greece’s implementation of austerity reforms.
European shares ended Tuesday’s session higher on hopes of a Greek debt resolution, with France’s CAC 40 adding 1.5% to 2,984.05, Britain’s FTSE 100 strengthened by 1.98% to 5,363.71, and Germany’s DAX surged 2.88% to end the session at 5,571.68.
On Wall Street, stocked flirted for much of the session with negative territory before closing Tuesday’s session mixed. The Dow Jones Industrial Average edged up 0.07% to 11,408.70, while the Nasdaq Composite Index gave up 0.86% to 2,590.24, and the S&P 500 shed 0.17% to close at 1,202.09.
Wall Street players appeared to have little reaction the a U.S. Commerce Department report, earlier Tuesday, that housing starts fell by 5% in August, well below the 2.3% decline anticipated by the market.
Meanwhile, the euro was lower against both the British pound and the Japanese yen, with EUR/GBP down by 0.08% to hit 0.8700, and EUR/JPY falling 0.09% to hit 104.63.
The U.S. Federal Reserve was to conclude its two-day Federal Open Market Committee meeting later Wednesday.