By Michael Kitchen, MarketWatch
LOS ANGELES (MarketWatch) — After sharp gains earlier in the week on plans for a Spanish bank rescue, the euro settled back to range-bound trade around the $1.25 level in Asian trading hours Tuesday.
The euro EURUSD +0.05% dipped during Asian hours but later regained ground to sit at $1.2491, unchanged from its level in late North American trading on Monday.
Concerns about the upcoming Greek elections and a lack of clarity on the Spanish bank aid had pushed the European currency down from a high of $1.2657 on Monday, in the wake of Spain’s announcement it was seeking assistance for its financial sector.
But as Credit Agricole analysts said Tuesday, the June 17 national election in Greece remained an overhang for the euro.
“Prospects of a ‘Grexit’ have by no means dissipated, but at least the Greek political parties are not advocating this scenario even if they would like to renegotiate bailout terms,” the analysts said.
“Although the [U.S. dollar] will face some softer data releases this week, it is not clear that the [euro] will be best positioned to benefit from this,” they said.
The U.S. dollar also saw little movement during Tuesday trade. The ICE dollar index DXY -0.11% , which measures the greenback against six other currencies, edged marginally higher to 82.533 from its late Monday level of 82.529.
The Japanese yen was likewise flat, with the dollar USDJPY +0.13% buying ¥79.46, little changed from ¥79.45 late Monday in North America.
The British pound GBPUSD -0.11% , meanwhile, eased to $1.5490, down from $1.5504.
Michael Kitchen is Asia editor for MarketWatch and is based in Los Angeles.
