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Tuesday 7 August 2012

Forex - EUR/USD erases gains from hopes of ECB intervention

Forexpros - The euro dipped against the dollar in Asian trading early Wednesday amid profit-taking, erasing earlier gains stemming from optimism the European Central Bank will buy sovereign debt in the open market to lower borrowing costs in countries like Italy and Spain.

A Standard & Poor's decision to slap a negative outlook on Greece tempered the euro somewhat.

In Asian trading on Wednesday, EUR/USD was trading down 0.14% at 1.2382, up from a low of 1.2377 and off from a high of 1.2387.

The pair was likely to find support at 1.2342, the low from Aug. 6, and resistance at 1.2429, the high from Aug. 6.

Sky-high borrowing costs in Spanish government bond auctions have spurred calls for the European Central Bank to intervene by buying bonds, which would calm markets.

European Central Bank President Mario Draghi has said he has a blueprint ready to go yet details remain to be worked out, yet markets grew increasingly optimistic the ECB will intervene, possibly in tandem with the eurozone's bailout fund, the European Stability Mechanism (ESM).

A Spanish request for assistance from ESM could give the ECB the green light to start buying Spanish government bonds, the yields of which have repeated soared above 7% in recent weeks, a level markets deem unsustainable.

Disappointing indicators out of Europe took the euro down from a near one-month high earlier.

German factory orders fell 1.7% in June, well above expectations for a 1.0% decline. 

Meanwhile, Italy reported that its gross domestic product contracted by 0.7% in the second quarter, worse than expectations for a 0.6% contraction.

Separately, Standard & Poor's said it was sticking with its "CCC" foreign and "C" local currency credit ratings on Greece, but assigned a negative outlook on the country, which means more downgrades are possible.

The euro, meanwhile, was down against the pound and down against the yen, with EUR/GBP down 0.09% at 0.7930, and EUR/JPY trading down 0.16% at 97.30.

Later Wednesday, Germany will hold an auction of 10-year government bonds and release official data on industrial production.

The U.S. is to release government data on labor costs and productivity levels, leading indicators of consumer inflation. 

The government will also release official data crude oil stockpiles.

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