The euro fell against the majority of its most-traded counterparts as looming elections in several European countries and concerns about Greece’s debt made investors think that it is too risky to invest into European assets.
France’s presidential elections drew the most attention due to the anti-eurozone stance of one of the candidates, Marine Le Pen, who is getting bigger and bigger support from voters according to polls. Elections in such countries as Netherlands and Germany should not be ignored either because they may yet bring some nasty surprises as anti-establishment forces are gaining momentum. That clouds the future of the eurozone further.
The theme of Greece and its debt returned to headlines, and that is not good to the euro either. It looks like Greece will have tough negotiations with the European Union and the International Monetary Fund to get a next round of bailout, and the country may default on its payments yet again. The upcoming European elections complicate the matter further as politicians do not want to be seen by their voters as somebody who gives away taxpayers’ money to Greece for free, making them less willing to compromise and offer Greece better terms of rescue.
EUR/USD dropped from 1.0749 to 1.0677 as of 23:20 GMT today, touching the low of 1.0655. EUR/GBP slumped from 0.8619 to 0.8539. EUR/JPY fared somewhat better, sliding from 120.01 to 119.53 intraday but bouncing to 119.92 later.
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