BLBG:Euro Advances to One-Week High as Europe Denies Greek Writedown Pressure
The euro advanced to a one-week high against the dollar after the European Commission refuted reports that euro-area nations are pushing for private Greek bondholders to accept larger writedowns.
The shared currency strengthened versus 13 of 16 major peers, appreciating against the dollar for a fourth day. The commission is unaware of discussions among euro-area finance ministers “related to private-sector involvement,” spokesman Amadeu Altafaj told reporters in Brussels today, referring to a report in the Financial Times yesterday.
“The FT story was slightly destabilizing but now that it seems to have been cleared out of the way risk appetite is coming back into the ascendancy again,” said Jeremy Stretch, head of currency strategy at Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce in London. “That’s helping non-dollar assets generally and pushing the euro up a bit.”
The euro appreciated as much as 0.8 percent to $1.3690, the strongest intraday level since Sept. 21, before trading at $1.3667 as of 11:59 a.m. in London. The shared currency gained 0.1 percent to 104.42 yen, erasing a 0.6 percent decline.
To contact the reporters on this story: Garth Theunissen in London at gtheunissen@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Daniel Tilles at dtilles@bloomberg.net