Mounting concern over the Eurozone debt crisis and weak U.S. employment data pushed exchange traded funds pegged to the euro lower on Friday.
CurrencyShares Euro Trust (NYSEArca: FXE) was down 0.5% in the final half-hour of trading Friday. The fund hasbeen hovering around its 50-day moving average recently as it ponders its next major move.
Doubts about Greece meeting its deficit targets, a pessimistic outlook on Germany passing plans to reform the E.U. bailout fund and the potential hawkish European Central Bank stance next week are just some of the factors backing a bearish view on the euro over the next few weeks, reports Neal Armstrong for Reuters.
On Thursday, manufacturing data fell for the first time in almost two years.
“It’s hard for the euro to go down very fast against the dollar given expectations for more monetary easing in the U.S. But if we continue to get worse case scenarios panning out in the Eurozone it will have to go lower,” stated Adrian Schmidt, currency strategist at Lloyds Banking Group, in the report. “The Greek and Italian situations have deteriorated, and the Eurozone PMI’s were not great.”
The euro currency traded down to a three-week low against the dollar at $1.4208 during intraday trading on Friday.
“The ongoing debt and deficit crisis and the subsequent policy reaction continue to represent a major risk [to the euro], and here there are many challenges on the immediate horizon,” according to a Morgan Stanley note.
CurrencyShares Euro Trust
For more information on the euro currency, visit our euro category.
Read the disclaimer; Tom Lydon is a board member of Rydex|SGI.
Max Chen contributed to this article.