* Euro falls to 3-week low vs dollar, stung by Greece woes
* Market awaits EU summit to see if Athens can secure aid
* Traders shun risk, high-yielding FX slip
(Recasts, updates prices, adds quote, changes dateline,
previous LONDON)
NEW YORK, March 22 (Reuters) - The euro fell to a
three-week low against the dollar on Monday, still pressured by
concern about whether Greece will be able to secure aid this
week to help service its ballooning debts.
Traders are cautious before the March 25-26 summit of
European Union leaders. European leaders sent out conflicting
signals at the weekend over aid to Greece, with Germany urging
Athens to solve its debt problems alone while Italy strongly
backed EU support. []
"The key focus is the EU Summit," said Marc Chandler, head
of currency strategy at Brown Brothers Harriman in New York.
<^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Graphic on the euro zone crisis: http://r.reuters.com/fyw72j
Graphic on Greek economic data: http://r.reuters.com/wax34j
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^>
Midway through the New York session, the euro <EUR=> was
little changed from the prior close at $1.3526, in a technical
rebound off the session low, its lowest since March 2. It
traded at around 1.4327 Swiss francs <EURCHF=>, teetering near
a 17-month low hit late last week, and touched its lowest in
over a week against the yen <EURJPY=>.
"It seems there's agreement there will be some sort of
assistance to Greece, but it's not clear what form that will
take," said Carl Hammer, SEB currency strategist in Stockholm,
adding this would keep the euro under selling pressure.
Splits within the EU over how to help Greece have prompted
a sell-off in the single currency, knocking it down 10 percent
since December.
Germany's foreign minister, Guido Westerwelle, said on
Monday he did not want any German or EU money put forward as
financial aid for Greece as it would take the pressure off
Athens to put its public finances in order. [].
The euro did come off the session low after failing to
breach the $1.3450 level, strong support since May 2009, said
Joseph Trevisani, chief market analyst at FX Solutions in
Saddle River, New Jersey.
The dollar remained rangebound versus the yen at 90.12
<JPY=>, with support around 89.75 and resistance just over
91.00 yen.
The Australian <AUD=> and New Zealand dollars <NZD=>
slipped 0.1 percent and 0.5 percent, respectively, against
their U.S. counterpart. The commodity-linked currencies are
considered to be higher risk.
SUMMIT AHEAD
Greece said at the weekend it could go without borrowing
until the end of April but is pressing its EU partners for a
concrete standby package to help bring its borrowing costs
down. [].
"This brinkmanship between Greece and the rest of the
region is likely to come to a head this week," analysts at
JPMorgan said in a note to clients. "If the rest of the region
does not propose something that is acceptable to the Greeks at
this summit, then the Greeks may well go to the IMF."
Analysts expected such uncertainty to keep the euro weak,
even as data from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission
showed speculators' net short positions on the euro fell to
46,341 contracts last week from 74,551 the week before.
[]
Currency players also continued to watch a spat between
Washington and Beijing over the yuan, with China's commerce
minister saying it would retaliate if the U.S. labeled it a
currency manipulator. []
(Reporting by Nick Olivari; Additional reporting by Naomi
Tajitsu in London; Editing by Andrea Ricci)
