Greek Woes Weigh Heavily on EUR; Hits 1-Year Low vs. USD

By IBTimes Staff Reporter | May 05 2010 6:42 AM

Persistent concerns regarding Greek sovereign debt has finally begun to take a serious toll on the 16-nation single currency. The Euro witnessed drastic losses against the majority of its currency counterparts in Tuesday's trading. Dropping below 1.30 against the USD for the first time in over a year, and falling to 0.8550 against the British Pound for the first time since last August, the EUR seems a little worse for wear.

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Pessimism seems to be running market sentiment about the EUR for the moment. Even with the passage of a bailout plan for Greece, most investors worry that it won't be enough to prevent the crisis from spreading to the other parts of Europe which are also experiencing weakness.

This includes countries such as Ireland, Italy and Spain. Spain's unemployment rate specifically, has reached above 20% recently, and some statistics even put the unemployment for those between the ages of 21 and 45 closer to 40%. The offsetting strength of Germany is likely not enough to spur confidence among investors interested in Europe.

Since Europe is largely absent from the economic calendar today, it isn't likely that the EUR will experience any major rebound without positive data. Traders should, however, pay close attention to the American data releases since a positive result could convince traders to pull some funds away from safe-havens and back into riskier assets.