RTRS: FOREX-Euro slips but still near 1-month high vs dollar
By Steven C. Johnson
NEW YORK, June 6 (Reuters) - The euro fell on Monday after
a German official suggested a second Greek bailout was not yet
certain, but traders said the prospect of higher euro zone
interest rates would probably limit the currency's losses.
Policymakers have inched toward a new bailout package for
Greece that German media said could exceed 100 billion euros.
That helped push the euro zone common currency to a
one-month high of $1.4658, but it slipped after a spokesman for
the German finance ministry said a second aid program was not
certain. It was last down 0.1 percent at $1.4614 EUR=.
Greece received a 110-billion-euro aid package a year ago.
For more see [ID:nB4E7GU00T] and [ID:LDE7551RS].
But traders said the market expects to see a deal that
gives Greece more time to repay its debt. Karen Olney, UBS's
head of thematic research, said at a Reuters Investment Outlook
Summit that Greece's plight would be eased without triggering a
larger financial crisis or recession. "It's not a Lehman
moment," she said. [ID:nLDE7521SF]
That left investors looking to Thursday's European Central
Bank meeting, where ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet is
expected to hint at a July interest rate hike.
"The focus will turn toward interest rate differentials,
and with the Federal Reserve unlikely to do anything this year,
an ECB rate hike will pull money toward the euro and other
currencies," said Boris Schlossberg, head of research at GFT
Forex. "There's no reason whatsoever to own dollars now."
If Trichet hints at a July rate hike by talking tough on
inflation, Schlossberg said the euro could retest a 2011 high
around $1.4940.
For now, options barriers were stacked around $1.4700,
traders said, with resistance also seen at $1.4710 -- the 76.4
percent retracement of the euro's May decline.
The dollar also hit a one-month low beneath 80 yen before
rebounding to 80.18 yen JPY=, down about 0.1 percent. Asian
sovereigns were said to be dollar buyers below the 80 level.
Commodity currencies also benefited from weakness in the
greenback. The Australian dollar traded at $1.0740 AUD=D4,
near Friday's 3-1/2-week high of $1.0775.
BNP Paribas quantitative currency strategist James
Hellawell said short-term momentum indicators pointed to more
euro/dollar gains, but this was due to strong bearish dollar
momentum rather than a notable improvement in euro sentiment.
The dollar index .DXY dipped as low as 73.643 -- a trough
not seen since May 5. A recent spate of soft U.S. data has
raised concern about the strength of the U.S. economy. A report
Friday showed a sharp slowdown in job creation, pushing the
unemployment rate up to 9.1 percent. [ID:nOAT004818]
With the Fed not likely to lift interest rates for some
time, investors should continue to short the dollar, said Faros
Trading head of research Dan Dorrow, "especially against
capacity-constrained, rising-interest-rate currencies like the
Indian rupee INR= and Brazilian real BRL=."
(Additional reporting by Neal Armstrong in London; Editing by