The euro fell against the dollar amid concern European governments will struggle to resolve the sovereign debt crisis, damping demand for the region's assets.
The single currency weakened versus 14 of its 16 major counterparts after Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou said he'll press ahead with new austerity measures even as he failed to win backing from opposition parties. New Zealand's dollar climbed to the strongest since exchange-rate controls ended in 1985 after a report showed the nation's trade surplus widened by almost twice economists' estimates to a record in April.
"There are definitely still peripheral European problems," said Osao Iizuka, head of foreign-exchange trading in Tokyo at Sumitomo Trust & Banking Co., a unit of Japan's third-largest banking group. "The uncertainty is likely to weigh on the euro."
The euro declined to $1.4288 as of 9:36 a.m. in Tokyo from $1.4319 in New York last week. The currency was at 115.62 yen from 115.67 yen. The dollar was at 80.92 yen from 80.80 yen on May 27, when it dropped to 80.70 yen, the weakest since May 16.
The U.S. markets are closed today for a Memorial Day holiday, which "normally means subdued trade," Darryl Conroy, financial markets analyst in Brisbane at Suncorp-Metway Ltd., wrote in a note today.
Greece, EU
Greece's Antonis Samaras, leader of the biggest opposition party, New Democracy, rejected Papandreou's plan at a meeting with him and other opposition leaders in Athens, saying his party wouldn't be blackmailed. European Union officials have called for consensus on the package, which includes an extra 6 billion euros ($8.6 billion) of budget cuts and a plan to speed 50 billion euros of state-asset sales.
The EU may withhold the next tranche of credit to Greece after a report by an international panel of inspectors concluded that the debt-laden country has missed all the fiscal targets agreed in its rescue plan, Der Spiegel said, without saying how it obtained the information.
Europe's common currency has fallen 2.1 percent in the past month, the worst performer tracked by Bloomberg Correlation- Weighted Currency Indexes. The Swiss franc has strengthened 3.6 percent and the yen has added 2.2 percent.
New Zealand's dollar strengthened against all of its major peers. The South Pacific nation's exports outpaced imports by NZ$1.11 billion from a revised NZ$578 million surplus in March, Statistics New Zealand said today in Wellington. The median estimate in a Bloomberg News survey of economists was for a NZ$600 million surplus.
Prices of New Zealand's commodity exports gained for an eighth month to a record in April, according to an index calculated by ANZ National Bank Ltd.
New Zealand's dollar rose to as high as 82.19 U.S. cents, the highest since exchange-rate controls were ended in 1985, before trading at 82.03 cents from 81.92 cents last week in New York.
Source: http://www.sfgate.com
The single currency weakened versus 14 of its 16 major counterparts after Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou said he'll press ahead with new austerity measures even as he failed to win backing from opposition parties. New Zealand's dollar climbed to the strongest since exchange-rate controls ended in 1985 after a report showed the nation's trade surplus widened by almost twice economists' estimates to a record in April.
"There are definitely still peripheral European problems," said Osao Iizuka, head of foreign-exchange trading in Tokyo at Sumitomo Trust & Banking Co., a unit of Japan's third-largest banking group. "The uncertainty is likely to weigh on the euro."
The euro declined to $1.4288 as of 9:36 a.m. in Tokyo from $1.4319 in New York last week. The currency was at 115.62 yen from 115.67 yen. The dollar was at 80.92 yen from 80.80 yen on May 27, when it dropped to 80.70 yen, the weakest since May 16.
The U.S. markets are closed today for a Memorial Day holiday, which "normally means subdued trade," Darryl Conroy, financial markets analyst in Brisbane at Suncorp-Metway Ltd., wrote in a note today.
Greece, EU
Greece's Antonis Samaras, leader of the biggest opposition party, New Democracy, rejected Papandreou's plan at a meeting with him and other opposition leaders in Athens, saying his party wouldn't be blackmailed. European Union officials have called for consensus on the package, which includes an extra 6 billion euros ($8.6 billion) of budget cuts and a plan to speed 50 billion euros of state-asset sales.
The EU may withhold the next tranche of credit to Greece after a report by an international panel of inspectors concluded that the debt-laden country has missed all the fiscal targets agreed in its rescue plan, Der Spiegel said, without saying how it obtained the information.
Europe's common currency has fallen 2.1 percent in the past month, the worst performer tracked by Bloomberg Correlation- Weighted Currency Indexes. The Swiss franc has strengthened 3.6 percent and the yen has added 2.2 percent.
New Zealand's dollar strengthened against all of its major peers. The South Pacific nation's exports outpaced imports by NZ$1.11 billion from a revised NZ$578 million surplus in March, Statistics New Zealand said today in Wellington. The median estimate in a Bloomberg News survey of economists was for a NZ$600 million surplus.
Prices of New Zealand's commodity exports gained for an eighth month to a record in April, according to an index calculated by ANZ National Bank Ltd.
New Zealand's dollar rose to as high as 82.19 U.S. cents, the highest since exchange-rate controls were ended in 1985, before trading at 82.03 cents from 81.92 cents last week in New York.
Source: http://www.sfgate.com
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