Euro steadies as investors weigh up French gridlock; dollar soft
Updates prices
By Kevin Buckland and Amanda Cooper
TOKYO/LONDON, July 8 (Reuters) -The euro steadied on Monday, recovering overnight losses that stemmed from projections from France's election which pointed to a hung parliament, while the dollar remained soft.
The dollar remained on the back foot following surprisingly soft U.S. payrolls data on Friday, which boosted bets for the Federal Reserve to soon start cutting interest rates.
Sterling rose to 3-1/2 week highs versus the dollar and the euro, building on the gains following the Labour Party's landslide election victory last week, which ended 14 years of Conservative rule.
The Australian dollar benefited from greenback weakness to push to a six-month peak.
The yen held above last week's near 38-year trough to the dollar, but weakened from the day's highs.
The euro EUR=EBS was flat at $1.0828, having earlier slid as much as 0.4%, as investors weighed up the consequences of a hung French parliament.
That was among several surprises in projected results, including the likely first-place finish for the leftist New Popular Front (NFP) alliance, and third-place showing for Marine Le Pen's nationalist, eurosceptic National Rally (RN), which had been the frontrunner going into Sunday's vote.
Polling agencies forecast the left would get between 184 and 198 seats - well short of the 289 seats needed for an absolute majority. President Emmanuel Macron's centrist alliance was expected to get 160 to 169 seats, and the RN and its allies 135 to 143 seats.
"The shock of a far-right party gaining a majority was avoided in the short term, but the rise of left-wing parties and increasing political uncertainties could raise concerns over French fiscal deficits and euro zone stability in the medium term," said Ken Cheung, director of FX strategy at Mizuho Securities.
NO SIGNIFICANT CHANGE
The euro weakened slightly against the Swiss franc EURCHF=EBS, which had been an early beneficiary of investor concern around the implications for the wider euro zone from potential instability in France.
The single European currency was last down 0.1% at 0.9702 francs, its lowest in a week, but remained within sight of last week's one-month high.
"In our view, these election results are unlikely to have a long-lasting negative impact, given there will be essentially no significant change in the political situation in the National Assembly," Nomura senior macroeconomist Andrzej Szczepaniak said, adding that euro/Swiss should "grind towards parity" over the summer.
The dollar index =USD, which measures the U.S. currency against the euro, sterling, yen and three other major rivals, was flat at 104.95, stabilising after a near 1% slump last week, exacerbated by Friday's softer U.S. jobs data.
Traders currently set about 76% odds for a rate cut at the Fed's September meeting, up from 64% a week ago, according to the CME Group's FedWatch Tool. A subsequent cut is predicted by December.
The dollar was last up 0.1% at 160.93 yen JPY=EBS, still below last week's high of 161.96.
Sterling GBP=D3 rose 0.1% to $1.2825, its highest since June 12.
The Aussie dollar AUD=D3 was down 0.1% at $0.6741, having earlier edged as high as $0.67615 for the first time since Jan. 4, as the risks of another central bank rate hike contrasted with increasing bets on a near-term cut by the U.S. Fed.
World FX rates https://tmsnrt.rs/2RBWI5E
Reporting by Kevin Buckland; Editing by David Evans and David Holmes
Actifs liés
Dernières actualités
Avertissement : Les entités de XM Group proposent à notre plateforme de trading en ligne un service d'exécution uniquement, autorisant une personne à consulter et/ou à utiliser le contenu disponible sur ou via le site internet, qui n'a pas pour but de modifier ou d'élargir cette situation. De tels accès et utilisation sont toujours soumis aux : (i) Conditions générales ; (ii) Avertissements sur les risques et (iii) Avertissement complet. Un tel contenu n'est par conséquent fourni que pour information générale. En particulier, sachez que les contenus de notre plateforme de trading en ligne ne sont ni une sollicitation ni une offre de participation à toute transaction sur les marchés financiers. Le trading sur les marchés financiers implique un niveau significatif de risques pour votre capital.
Tout le matériel publié dans notre Centre de trading en ligne est destiné à des fins de formation / d'information uniquement et ne contient pas – et ne doit pas être considéré comme contenant – des conseils et recommandations en matière de finance, de fiscalité des investissements ou de trading, ou un enregistrement de nos prix de trading ou une offre, une sollicitation, une transaction à propos de tout instrument financier ou bien des promotions financières non sollicitées à votre égard.
Tout contenu tiers, de même que le contenu préparé par XM, tels que les opinions, actualités, études, analyses, prix, autres informations ou liens vers des sites tiers contenus sur ce site internet sont fournis "tels quels", comme commentaires généraux sur le marché et ne constituent pas des conseils en investissement. Dans la mesure où tout contenu est considéré comme de la recherche en investissement, vous devez noter et accepter que le contenu n'a pas été conçu ni préparé conformément aux exigences légales visant à promouvoir l'indépendance de la recherche en investissement et, en tant que tel, il serait considéré comme une communication marketing selon les lois et réglementations applicables. Veuillez vous assurer que vous avez lu et compris notre Avis sur la recherche en investissement non indépendante et notre avertissement sur les risques concernant les informations susdites, qui peuvent consultés ici.
