Euro Falls to 13-Month Low as Credit Crisis Spreads to Europe By Stanley White and Candice Zachariahs
Oct. 6 (Bloomberg) -- The euro slid to a 13-month low against the dollar as a deepening credit crunch forced European governments to pledge bailouts of troubled banks and increase protection for depositors. The 15-nation currency fell to the lowest in more than two years versus the yen as Germany joined with banks and insurers to bail-out property lender Hypo Real Estate Holding AG and Belgium announced a revised deal to rescue Fortis, the largest Belgian financial-services firm. The yen also gained against the Australian and New Zealand dollars as investors pared holdings of higher-yielding currencies funded with Japan's currency. ``Everything coming out has been fairly euro-negative,'' said Alex Sinton, a senior currency dealer at ANZ National Bank Ltd. in Auckland. ``The euro zone is the second domino of the globe to be falling over after the U.S.'' The euro declined to $1.3648 at 9:45 a.m. in Tokyo from $1.3772 late in New York on Oct. 3. It earlier reached 1.3610, the lowest since Sept. 5, 2007. The euro fell to 141.97 yen, the weakest since May 18, 2006, and traded at 142.61 yen from 145.11 yen. The dollar bought 104.46 yen from 105.32 yen. Against the pound, the euro fell to 77.15 pence, the lowest since March 14. It also declined to 1.5379 Swiss francs, the weakest in more than six months. The German government and the country's banks and insurers agreed on a 50 billion euro ($68 billion) rescue for Hypo Real Estate after an earlier bailout faltered. European Bailouts BNP Paribas SA, France's biggest bank, will take control of Fortis's units in Belgium after a government rescue of the Brussels and Amsterdam-based company failed. The yen rose to 79.11 per Australian dollar from 81.48 late in New York on Oct. 3. It also advanced to 68.23 versus the New Zealand dollar from 69.76 and to 51.0898 against the Brazilian real from 51.5240. Japan's currency was the best-performer in September and the only currency to appreciate against the dollar as a credit market collapse drove Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. into bankruptcy and sent bank borrowing costs in Europe to record highs. Deutsche Bank AG, the biggest trader of foreign exchange, says the yen will rise 5 percent in coming months. New York- based Morgan Stanley is telling clients to buy the currency versus the euro and pound. Unbeatable Yen After seven years of providing the cheapest source of funds for investors buying higher-yielding New Zealand dollars, Australian dollars and Brazil reais, the yen is appreciating as $587 billion of subprime mortgage-related losses force banks to restrict credit. It strengthened 4.4 percent on a trade-weighted basis in September, according to the Bank of Japan's effective exchange rate, the most since August 2007, when the seizure in capital markets began. ``We are in a multi-year trend reversal,'' said Paresh Upadhyaya, a senior vice president at Putnam Investment LLC in Boston who helps manage $50 billion in currency assets. ``We are going to see a global central bank easing cycle. The yen is the place to be in this environment of economic slowdown and heightened volatility.'' Futures traders increased their bets that the yen will gain against the U.S. dollar, figures from the Washington-based Commodity Futures Trading Commission show. Currency Futures The difference in the number of wagers by hedge funds and other large speculators on an advance in the yen compared with those on a drop -- so-called net longs -- was 43,022 on Sep. 30, compared with net longs of 31,939 a week earlier. The dollar fell for a fourth day against the yen on speculation reports will show a deepening slump in the U.S. economy. Pending home sales fell 1.1 percent in August after a 3.2 percent decline in the previous month, according to a Bloomberg News survey. The National Association of Realtors will release the data on Oct. 8. The U.S. Congress approved a financial-market bailout on Oct. 3, authorizing the government to spend as much as $700 billion buying troubled assets from financial institutions reeling from record home foreclosures. ``It's unwise to buy a currency which is both in recession and having a banking crisis,'' Peter Pontikis, a treasury strategist at Suncorp- Metway Ltd. in Brisbane. ``What's not going to help the bullish case in at least the short-term is that they have an as yet unresolved banking cloud over the U.S. system.'' The dollar will weaken to $1.45 per euro over the next month, he said. To contact the reporter on this story: Stanley White in Tokyo at [EMAIL PROTECTED]; Candice Zachariahs in Sydney at [EMAIL PROTECTED] Last Updated: October 5, 2008 21:01 EDT --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum * Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/ * It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls. * Read the latest breaking news, and more. -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
