EURO STILL SEEN VULNERABLE
The euro's latest declines came in the wake of Germany's surprisingly weak Ifo business climate survey on Tuesday, which raised questions about recovery in Europe's biggest economy.
The market expects the European Central Bank to raise interest rates as soon as Aug. 31 to deal with looming inflation risks, but the Ifo report has raised concerns the economy may not be strong enough to withstand a hike.
Currency analysts said that European unit will face an uphill battle against the dollar as long as investors continue flocking to relatively buoyant U.S. assets.
``The Europeans are not going a good job of managing their economy,'' said Carl Weinberg, chief economist at High Frequency Economics. ``Despite their best efforts, growth remains sub par, inflation is a risk and overall there are huge bureaucratic obstacles to innovation and investment -- it's an unappealing place to park your money.''
The dollar, meanwhile, was broadly underpinned against most other major currencies after the Federal Reserve held interest rates unchanged on Tuesday, underscoring expectations the U.S. economy was floating to a soft landing.
Traders said a slew of comments from European central bank officials had little material effect on the currency.
ECB economist Otmar Issing said in one interview that the euro zone economy was in the best shape in 20 years, and in another that average euro zone inflation was unlikely to fall to the ECB's 2 percent ceiling.
German Finance Minister Hans Eichel said he saw no inflationary dangers in Germany and called for calm about the euro's recent fall, linking it to the strength of the U.S. economy. Eichel also said the health of the euro zone economies was picking up relative to the United States, a trend that would eventually help the common currency.
es kommt halt nicht nur darauf an, wie WIR unsere märkte und wirtschaft sehen... (...it's an unappealing place to park your money.') bzw. siehe auch: nas jumpt gerade wieder mal die 4.000er hürde :-) schafft er's dieses mal.....
grüße stiller teilhaber |