Forex - Euro hits session lows vs. dollar after Hansson remarks The euro fell to session lows against the dollar on Monday and trimmed gains against the yen following reports in Bloomberg that a senior European Central Bank official said the bank is ready to cut interest rates further. EUR/USD was down 0.31% to 1.3512 during European late morning trade, from 1.3557 on Friday. The pair is likely to find support at 1.3461, Friday’s low and resistance at 1.3557, Friday’s high. The euro slipped after Bloomberg reported that ECB Governing Council member Ardo Hansson said the bank is ready to make further cuts to interest rates and is “technically ready” for negative deposit rates. “The options on rate cuts are still not fully exhausted and there are all kinds of other measures that are still on the table,” Hansson said. The comments came amid concerns over mounting deflationary pressures in the euro area after data showed that the annual rate of inflation in the region fell to a four year low of 0.7% in October. The slowdown in inflation prompted the ECB to cut rates to a record low 0.25% at its November policy meeting. Investors were looking ahead to preliminary euro zone inflation data for November due for release on Friday, ahead of the ECB’s next monthly meeting on December 5. The euro pulled back from four year highs against the broadly weaker yen, with EUR/JPY up 0.16% to 137.48 after rising as high as 137.99 earlier, the highest level since October 2009. Elsewhere, the dollar was trading at six-month highs against the yen, with USD/JPY up 0.47% to 101.73, the highest level since May 30. The dollar continued to remain supported by the view that the Federal Reserve could start scaling back its stimulus program at one of its next few meetings.
Posted on: Mon, 25 Nov 2013 11:52:50 +0000
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