Currency ETFs Make Moves as Europe's Debt Crisis Widens | ETF Trends

The euro’s decline has accelerated over concerns that Greece’s debt woes could spread to other eurozone members. Worries over Europe’s growing debt crisis are reverberating throughout the currency exchange traded fund (ETF) market.

The U.S. dollar has risen to a new one-year high against the euro as prospects of a widening debt crisis in the eurozone pushed investors to a flight to quality toward the U.S. and Japanese currencies, writes Joe Manimbo for TheStreet.

  • PowerShares DB U.S. Dollar Bullish Fund (NYSEArca: UUP)
  • CurrencyShares Japanese Yen (NYSEArca: FXY)

Political uncertainty before a national election in the United Kingdom has kept the British pound vulnerable. The pound dropped to a five-week low against the U.S. dollar but gained against the weakening euro. [Buying the Euro?]

  • CurrencyShares British Pound Sterling Trust (NYSEArca: FXB)

The Canadian dollar is close to a six-week low against the U.S. dollar after a drop in market sentiment on the growing debt crisis in Europe.

  • Currency Shares Canadian Dollar Trust (NYSEArca: FXC)

Most of these non-euro funds are ailing themselves these days. The standout is the bullish U.S. dollar fund from PowerShares, which is up 3.5% in the last two weeks and 9.3% in the last six months. It’s clearly been the biggest beneficiary in the European crisis. The yen is next in line, up just 0.4% for the last week, but down 3.6% in the last six months. It’s also 1.9% below its 200-day moving average.

Clearly, we need to wait for some trends to reappear here. [How to Follow Trends.]

The euro could be ailing for a while. Anxiety over eurozone economies brought the euro down to 1.29 against the dollar, report Sebastian Moffett and Alkman Granitsas for The Wall Street Journal.

The fiscal crisis in Greece has brought on a crippling national strike that has turned into a violence in the face of new austerity measures imposed by the government in exchange for about $143 billion in bailout loans. [Euro and ETFs Slump As Greek Uprising Intensifies.]

  • CurrencyShares Euro Trust (NYSEArca: FXE)
  • WisdomTree Dreyfus Euro (NYSEArca: EU)

For more information on world currencies, visit our currency category.

Read the disclaimer; Tom Lydon is a board member of Rydex|SGI.

Max Chen contributed to this article.

    The opinions and forecasts expressed herein are solely those of Tom Lydon, and may not actually come to pass. Mr. Lydon serves as an independent trustee of certain mutual funds and ETFs that are managed by Guggenheim Investments; however, any opinions or forecasts expressed herein are solely those of Mr. Lydon and not those of Guggenheim Funds, Guggenheim Investments, Guggenheim Specialized Products, LLC or any of their affiliates. Information on this site should not be used or construed as an offer to sell, a solicitation of an offer to buy, or a recommendation for any product.