Speculation around Greece’s default pulls EURO/USD down– Sep 12

The financial markets continue to voice their concerns around the potential default of the Greek debt as the Euro/USD is traded sharply down while major commodities including gold and silver prices are falling.

Bloomberg speculates that Germany is preparing for default by Greece: officials in Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government are contemplating how to save the German banks if Greece will default on its debt as it won’t meet the terms of its EU-IMF aid, which include budget cuts. There are those who speculate that Germany is already getting ready for a 50pc haircut on Greek debt.

Greece is still trying to turn the dire situation around as Greece’s Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos said on Sunday that Greece government will impose a new property tax that supposes to cover €2 billion (nearly $2.7 billion) of Greece’s budget shortage in 2012. Will this decision pass? Currently it’s not clear.

It seems that the Greek potential default is affecting all major exchange rates including USD/CAD.

On the other hand, Eurogroup head Jean-Claude Juncker said on Monday: “We will do everything that will be needed in order to defend the euro,” 

This may include, if needed, increasing the size of the bloc’s bailout fund.

In the mean time, the Euro is still being traded sharply down and reaching new lows. As a result the USD is traded up and as a result major commodities prices are also traded down including gold and silver prices.

Euros to USD is currently traded down at 1.3591 a 0.4770% decrease as of 09:15*.

USD to Canadian dollar exchange rate is traded up at 0.9998 a 0.3058% increase as of 09:15*.

Current gold price, short term futures (October 2011 delivery) is traded at $1,845.60 per t oz. a $13.9 decrease or 0.75%, as of 09:01*.

Current Nymex crude oil price, short term futures (October 2011 delivery) is traded down by 2.48%, at $85.08 per barrel as of 09:05*.

(* GMT)

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