Sense on Cents

The Euro has had a significant bounce over the last 6 weeks. After bottoming out slightly below 1.20/U.S. dollar in early June, the Euro has bounced back close to 1.30 versus the greenback. Let’s navigate the circuitous path of this most important currency and assess where it may be headed from here. I am most pleased to highlight commentary on this critically sensitive topic, written specifically for Sense on Cents by Forextraders.com:

The Current State of the Euro:  Can It Head Higher Versus The Dollar?

The months of June and July have seen a rapid and extreme appreciation of the Euro against the U.S. Dollar.   In order to understand our current state of the Euro and where we may be headed, it is imperative that one have a basic understanding of the Sovereign Debt Crisis in Europe.

A Greek Default?

After a sovereign default scare in Dubai in late November, rumors started to circulate that Greece could be in similar trouble. It didn’t take long for these rumors to be proven as true.  Immediately, investors and traders made a mad dash out of the Euro and into the safety of the U.S. Dollar.

The chart above (click to enlarge) depicts the major moves of the EUR/USD over the last two years and what has caused each one.  Our current move in the EUR/USD can still be considered a result of the Sovereign Default Crisis in the EuroZone.  As the Euro tumbled from November of 2009 to June of 2010, the European Central Bank (ECB) was very stand-offish to any talks of a Greek bailout.  In the original EuroZone agreement, there were to be no bailouts, and due to political pressures in Germany, the ECB was very hesitant to raise the possibility of a bailout.  This only served to exacerbate investor concerns, and week after week the Euro continued its precipitous decline.  Finally in early June, the ECB and IMF announced a bailout package and confirmed that funds were in place if any EuroZone member countries needed aid.  This served to reassure investors that there would be no default, at least in the short-term, and the Euro finally found support at 1.1875 on June 6^th.  Since then, the Euro has staged a remarkable rally as it breached the 1.3000 level on July 16^th before finally falling back to the 1.2900 level.

So Where Is The Euro Headed?

The violent rise of 1,000 pips from June 6^th to mid-July was due to several factors.  First of all, in June it became very apparent the U.S. was facing major roadblocks in its economic recovery.  Extremely disappointing housing figures, a struggling labor market, and a very dovish Federal Reserve combined to create a clear picture that the United States was not going to be raising interest rates anytime soon.  In Europe, it seemed apparent that struggling EuroZone economies were adopting strict austerity measures as they made massive cuts to government spending.  If the austerity measures that Greece, Portugal, Spain, Ireland, and Italy are instituting are successful, the EuroZone could emerge from the recession sooner and on better ground than the U.S., although it is far too early to tell.  The fears of a near-term default in the EuroZone eased further when Greece, Portugal, and Spain all raised billions of Euros in bond auctions from the capital markets—and they were each able to raise the capital at better interest rates than expected.  This sent the Euro even higher during the week of July 11^th by those who trade currencies.

Further Euro gains above 1.3000 this week will most likely depend on the results of the European Bank Stress Test Results.  A large percentage of European Banks will be required to undergo a series of tests that will simulate a time of great financial distress and expose a bank’s assets and liabilities to the simulated environment, in order to determine how the bank would hold up.  If the market is pleased with the results of the Stress Tests, then the Euro will most likely move to higher levels in the coming weeks.  However, if the market does not like the results, a top may be in place at 1.3000, and the Euro may begin to correct lower.

Thanks again to Forextraders.com for this commentary.

LD

Please subscribe to all my work via e-mail, an RSS feed, on Twitter or Facebook.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 20th, 2010 at 9:41 AM and is filed under Euro, General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.