Investing.com – The euro was down for a third day against the pound on Monday, slumping to a seven-week low as ongoing concerns over the euro zone’s debt crisis weighed on the single currency.
EUR/GBP hit 0.8704 during European morning trade, the pair’s lowest since May 31; the pair subsequently consolidated at 0.8734, declining 0.45%.
The pair was likely to find support at 0.8665, the low of May 31 and resistance at 0.8794, Friday’s high.
Euro zone finance ministers were to meet Thursday to focus on “the financial stability of the euro area as a whole and the future financing of the Greek program,” according to the president of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy.
The second summit in less than a month follows a worsening of the crisis that pushed Italy to the attention of investors and drove bond yields to euro-lifetime highs across Europe’s most indebted nations.
Italian and Spanish government bond yields jumped Monday, with Italian bonds climbing to 5.85% and Spanish yields up to 6.24%, approaching the 7% mark that prompted peripheral euro zone nations, Greece, Portugal and Ireland to seek bailouts.
The European Banking Authority said Friday that eight banks out of the region’s 90 top lenders failed its stress tests, with a combined capital shortfall of EUR2.5 billion.
The EBA said 16 banks narrowly passed the stress tests. Of the banks that failed the tests, five were in Spain, two in Greece and one in Austria, while all banks tested in the U.K. and Ireland passed.
While the results were better-than-expected, the tests did not include the possibility of a sovereign debt default, which many believe was a likely outcome for Greece.
The euro was also down against the Swiss franc, with EUR/CHF dropping 0.65% to hit 1.1467. It earlier sank to a fresh record low of 1.1401.
Swiss National Bank Vice President Thomas Jordan said last Thursday that the SNB was “monitoring the euro-franc exchange rate very closely,” after the Swissie surged to fresh record highs against the single currency for five consecutive days last week.
EUR/GBP hit 0.8704 during European morning trade, the pair’s lowest since May 31; the pair subsequently consolidated at 0.8734, declining 0.45%.
The pair was likely to find support at 0.8665, the low of May 31 and resistance at 0.8794, Friday’s high.
Euro zone finance ministers were to meet Thursday to focus on “the financial stability of the euro area as a whole and the future financing of the Greek program,” according to the president of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy.
The second summit in less than a month follows a worsening of the crisis that pushed Italy to the attention of investors and drove bond yields to euro-lifetime highs across Europe’s most indebted nations.
Italian and Spanish government bond yields jumped Monday, with Italian bonds climbing to 5.85% and Spanish yields up to 6.24%, approaching the 7% mark that prompted peripheral euro zone nations, Greece, Portugal and Ireland to seek bailouts.
The European Banking Authority said Friday that eight banks out of the region’s 90 top lenders failed its stress tests, with a combined capital shortfall of EUR2.5 billion.
The EBA said 16 banks narrowly passed the stress tests. Of the banks that failed the tests, five were in Spain, two in Greece and one in Austria, while all banks tested in the U.K. and Ireland passed.
While the results were better-than-expected, the tests did not include the possibility of a sovereign debt default, which many believe was a likely outcome for Greece.
The euro was also down against the Swiss franc, with EUR/CHF dropping 0.65% to hit 1.1467. It earlier sank to a fresh record low of 1.1401.
Swiss National Bank Vice President Thomas Jordan said last Thursday that the SNB was “monitoring the euro-franc exchange rate very closely,” after the Swissie surged to fresh record highs against the single currency for five consecutive days last week.