Asian and European trading sessions:Euro:
Today's focus of the market participants turned towards upcoming EU summit which is scheduled on June 28-29. Participants will discuss the possible revision of the conditions for providing financial aid to Greece as well as the situation with the debt crisis in the euro region at this summit. The euro currency traded near the lows of 1.2510 against the U.S. dollar during the Asian session amid fears that the EU summit will not be able to solve the problems associated with the debt crisis in the EU due to the disagreements between France, Italy and Germany on issuing eurobonds.
In the European session the euro fell against the major currencies against the backdrop of disappointing results of the auctions of Spanish and Italian government bonds. As a result, Spain attracted 3.077 billion euros at the target plans of 2-3 billion euros. The disappointed facts were the decreasing demand for bonds and increasing average return on the releases (yield). The analysts suggested that this result was caused partly by the last night decision of the Moody's rating agency to lower the credit rating of 28 Spanish banks, including giants such as Santander and BBVA, and than their (Spanish banks) official request for financial aid. In details, Moody’s lowered long-term ratings on debt and deposits by 1-4 stages. Italy also had a negative outcome on auctions, attracting 916 million euros in the plans 0.5 - 1 billion euros.
U.S. Dollar: The U.S. dollar currency rose against the background of the decreasing demand for safe haven assets as well as on the continuing decline of Asian stock markets.
British Pound: The GBP/USD pair rose to yesterday's maximum level of $1.5590 during the Asian session and was able to move higher to the high of this day, a level of $1.5650 at the European session.
Japanese Yen: The USD/JPY pair recovered to the Y79.75 level during the Asian session. However, the increased demand for the safe heaven assets pressured the pair and it fell to the yesterday lows of the Y79.22.
American trading session:
Euro: The euro currency fell against the dollar, to the level of $1.2443 which is the lowest level since the beginning of the June on statements of German Chancellor Angela Merkel who had said that she could not approve the idea of Van Rompuy on performing reforms in the EU and opposed to issuing eurobonds.
U.S. Dollar: In the report published today on the index of U.S. consumer confidence, the result of which showed a decrease to a 5 -month low of the optimism of Americans about the positive improvement of the U.S. labor market and income growth the dollar fell against its competitors.
Gold: The price of gold fell today on the COMEX after uncertainty in the European economy caused an increase in demand for U.S. currency, therefore reducing the demand for precious metals among investors. The June gold futures today fell to 1567.63 dollars per troy ounce.
Oil: The cost of the August futures on U.S. light crude oil WTI on the NYMEX today was kept in the range of $78.36 to $79.66 a barrel.
Silver: The June Silver futures today were kept in a range of $28.39 and $28.53 per troy ounce.