Saturday, May 16, 2009

Bloomberg Forex News

Euro Declines as Economy Contracts Most in at Least 13 Years

May 15 (Bloomberg) -- The euro fell against the dollar and extended a weekly loss versus the yen as the economy of the 16- nation region contracted the most in at least 13 years, raising concern the pace of recovery will be slow.

The U.S. currency pared its loss against the yen as manufacturing in the New York region contracted this month the least since August and the six-month outlook improved for a third straight month. The euro was headed for its first weekly decline versus the dollar in a month on Europe’s contraction.

“It’s a really bad piece of data, and it’s going to get worse because the European Central Bank has only come up with half-hearted measures,” said Geoffrey Yu, a strategist in London at UBS AG, the world’s second-largest currency trader. “This is going to be bad for the euro.”

The euro slid 0.5 percent to $1.3573 at 10:15 a.m. in New York, from $1.3639 yesterday, and was headed for a weekly decrease of 0.4 percent. The euro lost 1.1 percent to 129.27 yen from 130.67, for a 3.5 percent decline this week. The dollar dropped 0.6 percent to 95.25 yen, from 95.80, after earlier decreasing 1.1 percent.

The yen gained this week versus all of the 16 most actively traded currencies tracked by Bloomberg as reports indicating the global economic recovery may be slow reduced demand for higher- yielding assets. The yen rallied 7.6 percent to 11.06 against the South African rand and increased 5.7 percent to 14.70 versus Norway’s krone.

No comments: