By Kristine Aquino - Jul 9, 2012 7:20 AM GMT+0700
The euro touched its lowest level in two years before regional finance ministers gather in Brussels today to discuss crisis-fighting measures adopted by heads of government at a summit last month.
The 17-nation currency weakened versus most of its 16 major counterparts before a bill sale in Italy this week. The yen advanced against all of its most-traded peers after Japan released trade data for May and as Asian stocks extended losses in global equity markets from last week, boosting demand for haven assets. Australia’s dollar fell for a second day after Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said downward pressure on the economy is still “relatively large.”
The euro earlier slid to as low as $1.2251, the weakest since July 2010. Photographer: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg
July 8 (Bloomberg) -- Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti discusses the current level of yield spreads on European sovereign debt. He talks with Bloomberg Television's Caroline Connan in Aix-en-Provence, France. (Source: Bloomberg)
July 8 (Bloomberg) -- French Finance Minister Pierre Moscovici talks with reporters in Aix-en-Provence, France, about the need to implement debt-crisis measures agreed by heads of government on June 29. (Source: Bloomberg)
July 6 (Bloomberg) -- Robert Parker, senior adviser at Credit Suisse Asset Management, talks about European Central Bank longer-term refinancing operations and Barclays Plc's libor-fixing scandal. Speaking with Linzie Janis on Bloomberg Television's "On the Move," he also discusses investment strategy and the outlook for the U.S. and German economies. (Source: Bloomberg)
July 7 (Bloomberg) -- New York University Professor Nouriel Roubini discusses "greedy" bankers, the euro-zone crisis and risks facing the global economy in 2013. He speaks in Aix-en-Provence, France, with Bloomberg Television's Caroline Connan. (Source: Bloomberg)
“The risk around the finance ministers’ meeting is that we see more cracks appearing in European unity and perhaps a delay in implementation of the measures agreed on at the summit,” said Mike Jones, a Wellington-based currency strategist at Bank of New Zealand Ltd. “That’s taking some toll on the euro.”
The euro earlier slid to as low as $1.2251, the weakest since July 2010, before trading at $1.2281 as of 9:12 a.m. in Tokyo, 0.1 percent lower than the close on July 6. The shared currency lost 0.3 percent to 97.65 yen. The yen gained 0.2 percent to 79.52 per dollar. The so-called Aussie declined 0.1 percent to $1.0205.
The MSCI Asia Pacific Index (MXAP) of shares dropped 0.7 percent.
At a summit in June, euro-region leaders agreed to relax conditions on emergency loans for Spanish banks.
“We have to move quickly on banking supervision and we have to move quickly on the direct recapitalization of Spanish banks,” French Finance Minister Pierre Moscovici said yesterday.
Japan’s current-account surplus was 215.1 billion yen ($2.7 billion) in May, the Ministry of Finance said in Tokyo today. That compares with a median estimate for an excess of 493.1 billion yen in a Bloomberg News survey of economists.
To contact the reporter on this story: Kristine Aquino in Singapore at kaquino1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Rocky Swift at rswift5@bloomberg.net
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