Has the Euro's Retreat Affected Europe's Recovery?

Finance ministers from the Euro Zone will be meeting later today to discuss with Jean-Claude Juncker, the Eurogroup chairman, their concerns about the Euro-zone’s recovery, given the single currency Euro’s recent continued rise. With that question foremost on their minds, investors took the opportunity to trim long positions, forcing the Euro to retreat from multi-month peaks versus the U.S. Dollar and the Japanese Yen. Since the beginning of the year, the Euro’s appreciation versus the U.S. currency has been nearly 6%; late last week, it hovered close to $1.50.

As reported at 2:21 p.m. (JST) in Tokyo, versus the U.S. Dollar, the Euro traded at $1.4875, a decline of .2% from late Friday’s trade, while against the Japanese Yen, the Euro traded at 135.15 Yen, a loss of .3%, though it had at one point in the day traded at 134.76 Yen; Friday, the Euro traded at 136.07 Yen, the highest in nearly 2-months. The U.S. Dollar gained back some earlier losses in Friday’s trading, following the news from the Bank of America of a substantial loss in the 3rd quarter of 2009. U.S. consumer confidence appears to, once again, be waning, and the U.S. currency is benefiting from a decrease in demand for risk.