Forexpros - The euro gained ground against the U.S. dollar Friday, a day after the European Central Bank restarted its bond purchase program, and finance ministers scrambled to secure a deal on a bailout fund for debt threatened euro-zone members.
EUR/USD hit 1.4076 during early U.S. trade, the pair's lowest since July 17; the pair subsequently consolidated at 1.4269, adding 1.2%.
The pair was likely to find support at 1.4186, Monday's low, and resistance at 1.4371, Wednesday's high.
The European Central Bank, after a four-month lapse, began buying government bonds from Ireland and Portugal but stopped short of purchases from key debt-threatened members Italy and Span.
The European Commission has pushed for an expansion of the USD623 billion European Financial Stability Facility bailout fund, in an effort to ease market fears of a deepening of debt woes in the region.
German Economy Minister Philipp Roesler has opposed further embellishment to the fund.
European stocks moved lower in Friday trade, with France's CAC 40 down by 1.34% to 3,275.80, the FTSE 100 slumping 2.8% to 5,242.50, and Germany's DAX 30 shedding 2.8% to 6,235.
Wall Street shares see-sawed in Friday trade on encouraging numbers from the U.S. Labor Department that unemployment in July fell to 9.1%, outpacing forecasts of a 9.2% reading for the month.
In mid-day trade the Dow Jones Industrial Average picked up 0.77%, the S&P 500 advanced 0.28% wile the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index dropped 0.25%..
The euro was also higher against the British pound and the Japanese yen, with EUR/GBP gaining 0.43% to hit 0.8706 and EUR/JPY up by 0.63% to hit 111.86.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy were expected to hold discussions later in the day on details of the debt bailout fund.
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
