The euro held above a two-month low in Asian trading on Monday after Greece's ruling coalition secured enough votes in parliament on Sunday to approve the 2013 budget law, but its potential for gains was thought to be limited by the impending meeting of euro zone finance ministers later in the session.
Deputies allied to Greece's three-party government approved the budget with a comfortable majority of parliament's 300 seats. "Worries about Greece still remain, but at least some uncertainties have been removed, so we are unlikely to see a big euro sell-off," said Masashi Murata, senior currency strategist at Brown Brothers Harriman in Tokyo. Eurozone finance ministers will meet in Brussels later on Monday to discuss whether to release a new tranche of funding to Greece. German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble told a German newspaper on Sunday that the troika of international lenders to Athens was unlikely to deliver its full report in time for Monday's meeting.
The euro could come under pressure as investors hedged some of the risks associated with the November 16 Greece funding deadline, said Richard Hastings, macro strategist at Global Hunter Securities, in emailed comments. The euro was changing hands at $1.2725, down from an earlier Monday high of $1.2737 but still up about 0.1 percent from late North American levels on Friday, when it fell as low as $1.2690 on the EBS trading platform. That was its lowest since September 7. Support was cited at the euro's ichimoku cloud base at $1.2653 and at its 100-day moving average at $1.2639.
Against the yen, the euro last stood at 101.14 yen, down from a session high of 101.25 yen but still up about 0.1 percent and moving away from a one-month low of 100.43 yen hit on Friday. The dollar bought 79.48 yen, down slightly from late North American levels on Friday, when it fell as low as 79.07 yen, its weakest since October 18. Markets shrugged off news early in the session that Japan's gross domestic product contracted 0.9 percent in July-September from the previous quarter, in line with forecasts. This was the first negative reading in three quarters, but it adds to fears that slowing global growth is pushing the economy into recession.
The dollar's net long position totalled $1.296 billion in the week ended November 6, from net shorts of around $710 million the previous week. It was the first net long position for the greenback in two months. The Australian dollar was up about 0.3 percent at 1.0413, but still well shy of Wednesday's 1 1/2-month high of $1.0480.