Euro jumps in Asia

The euro jumped on Monday after the European Central Bank announced steps to ease tensions in the eurozone debt market, while the Group of Seven major industrial nations reaffirmed their vow to support financial market stability and growth. But as both institutions fell short of details, the dollar wallowed not far from its record low against the Swiss franc, weakened after Standard & Poor's downgrade of the US credit rating, with dollar-funding pressure emerging.
The risk-sensitive Australian and New Zealand currencies stayed on the backfoot with the Aussie hitting a four-month trough vs the dollar after oil fell sharply and Asian bourses were battered, driving the safe haven Swiss franc and yen higher. The euro was up 0.3 percent at $1.4313, after briefly climbing as high as $1.4432, up more than a cent from late New York levels on Friday and a long way from last week's troughs around $1.4055.
Against the yen it edged up to 112.51 yen from New York's 112.16, before reversing direction to stand at 111.63, as the yen got support from weakness in other crosses. The euro also softened 0.2 percent against the Swiss franc, falling to 1.0855 francs, but held above an all-time low around 1.0719 plumbed last Friday.
Both the franc and the yen were bolstered by safe-haven flows, keeping alive the threat of intervention by Swiss and Japanese authorities to weaken their currencies, whose strength is severely harming their economies. The dollar fell as low as 77.60 yen on the EBS trading platform and touched a record low versus the Swiss franc under 0.7500. Over the past month it has shed some 6 percent against the Swiss franc and about 4 percent against the yen.
The dollar was last down 0.6 percent at 77.84 yen. Underscoring lingering anxiety in the market, gold, another safe haven, surged 2.3 percent to another record high above $1,700 an ounce, while commodities tied to economic growth slumped, with US crude oil futures down 3.5 percent. The greenback stayed under pressure against a basket of major currencies, weighed down by S&P's downgrade of the United States by one notch to AA-plus from the top notch AAA level on concerns about growing budget deficits. Investors also gave commodity currencies a wide berth, prompting further declines in the likes of the Australian dollar. The Aussie dipped to a four-month trough of $1.0313.