The euro slipped against the dollar on Monday, staying near multi-month lows on concerns about the fiscal health of some eurozone countries. Analysts said sentiment towards the single currency remained broadly negative, not helped by Greek unions pledging to fight austerity measures with another strike this week, prompting an increase in the cost of insuring Greece's sovereign debt.
Investors were disappointed the weekend Group of Seven meeting did not lead to concrete action to tackle the sovereign debt problems of countries such as Greece, Portugal and Spain. "As long as EMU fears still loom and there is no strong signal from EU authorities that they will do something to tackle the situation in Greece, Spain and Portugal then euro downside potential will remain," said Roberto Mialich, currency strategist at Unicredit in Milan.
US Commodity Futures Trading Commission data showed investors increased their bets on further dollar gains in the latest week. Dollar net long positions were at their highest in 11 months while euro short positions jumped close to highs seen after Lehman Brothers collapsed in late 2008.
By 1232 GMT, the euro was down 0.1 percent on the day at $1.3645. It had earlier made a show above $1.3700, with traders citing German and east European buyers. It remained less than a cent above an 8-1/2-month low of $1.3585 hit on trading platform EBS on Friday. Unicredit's Mialich said the euro would need to hold above $1.3750 for any rebound to become more convincing.
The single European currency has shed nearly 10 percent from a 15-month high of $1.5145 hit in late November, as jitters about the fiscal problems in Greece spreading to Portugal and then to Spain intensified. The US dollar mostly fell, with the dollar index down 0.1 percent at 80.386. However, it was not far from a high of 80.683 hit on Friday, its strongest since July 2009. Technical traders said it had broken its 200-week moving average to trade above for the first time since May 2009.
The yen stayed in favour as investors looked to buy the low-yielding currency as a safe-haven trade. The dollar fell 0.2 percent to 89.17 yen and the euro was also down 0.3 percent at 121.74 yen. Among perceived higher-risk currencies, the Australian dollar slipped 0.2 percent to $0.8659 while the New Zealand dollar slipped 0.1 percent to $0.6864.