Forex - EUR/USD trims losses on fresh Greece bailout hopes

Published 02/02/2012, 10:27 AM
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Investing.com - The euro trimmed losses against the U.S. dollar on Thursday, pulling away from the session low after European Union leaders said they are aiming to sign off on a second bailout package for Greece by Monday.

EUR/USD pulled back from 1.3086, the session low, to hit 1.3140 during early U.S. trade, still down 0.14% on the day.

The pair was likely to find support at 1.3025, Wednesday’s low and resistance at 1.3232, last Friday’s high and a six-week high.

The euro found support after EU Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn said negotiations on a debt restructuring deal for Greece were at a very advanced stage and were expected to conclude in the coming days.

The final package is expected to be approved at an extraordinary meeting of EU finance ministers on Monday.

An agreement is essential for Greece to secure its next tranche of bailout funds in order to avoid a default when a EUR14.5 billion bond repayment comes due on March 20.

The euro fell to the session low against the greenback earlier after Eurogroup head Jean-Claude Juncker said debt swap talks with the country’s private creditors were "ultra-difficult".

Meanwhile, market sentiment found some support after better-than-forecast U.S. data on initial jobless claims.

The Department of Labor said the number of individuals filing for initial jobless benefits fell by 12,000 last week to a seasonally adjusted 367,000, beating expectations for a decline to 373,000.

The previous week’s figure was revised up to 379,000 from 377,000.

Jobless claims have remained below 400,000, a level historically associated with an improving labor market, in 12 of the past 14 weeks.

Earlier in the day, Spain’s Treasury auctioned EUR4.5 billion of medium term debt earlier, at much lower yields than previously, while France sold EUR8 billion of government debt in an auction which met with solid investor demand and lower yields.

The euro edged higher against the pound, with EUR/GBP inching up 0.05% to hit 0.8315.

Also Thursday, official data showed that producer price inflation in the euro zone fell in December, declining 0.2% after rising by 0.2% in November.

Year-over-year, PPI rose at a rate of 4.3% in December, in line with expectations, after advancing at a rate of 5.4% in November.


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