Euro Strengthens on Greek Deal Optimism

The euro has strengthened on Tuesday versus the U.S. dollar, which was headed on Tuesday to post its largest loss of one day against one currency since the middle of March, on the expectation that Greece was close to reaching a deal with creditors.

The creditors are near finishing a new draft agreement that would be presented to the Athens government, said a source close to those talks on Tuesday. That helped to inject momentum into the long drawn out negotiations to release new aid for the country that is again strapped for cash.

Athens is nearly running out of its cash and has said it could default on its payment that is due this week to the International Monetary Fund without a new deal in place.

It is my expectation that over the next couple of days we will be seeing another reprieve granted to Greece and the standoff between the two sides ended, said the managing director of a foreign exchange on Wall Street.

He added that the euro would likely hit as high as $1.15 following the deal as more traders that had bet against the currency start to repurchases to cover short bets.

The euro was up close to 2.5% versus the dollar and hit a high of over one week of $1.1189. This reverses the gains the dollar had on Monday versus the euro, which were its biggest in close to a week, after U.S. data was stronger than had been expected increased thoughts that the Federal Reserve would make a rate hike before the end of 2015.

The rise of the euro Tuesday weighed on the U.S. dollar as it fell versus the yen after it reached a 12-year peak earlier in the season of 125.071.

There is obviously some effect of a drag from the euro/dollar, said one industry analysts. The dollar hit a low in the session of 123.69 yen after an announcement of factory goods orders in the U.S. dropping during April and comments from a board member of the central bank in the U.S. that the economy’s recent poor results might be more than just transitory.