Forexpros – The euro pushed higher against the U.S. dollar on Thursday, ahead of a European Union summit, but the single currency remained vulnerable as few expected concrete progress on tackling the region’s three-year old debt crisis.
EUR/USD hit 1.2525 during late Asian trade, the pair’s highest since Tuesday; the pair subsequently consolidated at 1.2513, gaining 0.36%.
The pair was likely to find support at 1.2441, Monday’s low and a two-week low and resistance at 1.2582, the high of June 22.
Hopes that leaders would make headway on dealing with the debt crisis dimmed ahead of the two-day summit meeting after German Chancellor Angel Merkel reiterated her opposition to the idea of joint euro zone bonds earlier in the week.
EU Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn said Wednesday that the summit would focus on short-term measures to stabilize markets and ease pressure on at-risk countries.
On Wednesday, Italy saw six-month borrowing costs climb to the highest level since December as investor sentiment towards the country continued to deteriorate.
Meanwhile, the yield on Spanish 10-year bonds was at 6.93% on Thursday, hovering just below the critical 7% threshold that prompted Greece, Ireland and Portugal to seek international bailouts.
The euro was fractionally higher against the pound and the yen, with EUR/GBP easing up 0.07% to 0.8014 and EUR/JPY inching up 0.03% to 99.42.
Also Thursday, Germany was to produce official data on unemployment change, while the U.S. was to release government data on initial jobless claims, followed by revised data on first quarter economic growth.
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