The euro was under pressure in Asian trade Monday after hitting a fresh two-year low against the dollar, with traders looking to a European finance ministers meeting later in the day.
The common currency was changing hands at $1.2288 in Tokyo trade against $1.2287 in New York late Friday, its lowest since July 2010.
The unit touched $1.2225 earlier in the Asian trading session, another fresh two-year low.
Against the Japanese currency, the euro bought 97.95 yen from 97.83 yen in US trade on Friday.
“The latest eurozone meetings on bank bailout strategy produced a short-term euphoria that the crisis had somehow been solved,” said Daisuke Uno, strategist at Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp.
“But the reality of a lack of concreteness to the measures reached — which banks will get what funds, and when, etc. — has since struck,” he added.
Traders were looking to a meeting later Monday of finance ministers from the 17-nation eurozone, who are under pressure to flesh out a plan to tackle the bloc’s debt crisis.
Under the deal, European leaders said they would use emergency funds to support ailing banks directly and to ease pressure on governments’ debt burdens through bond purchases.
The agreement also called for the injection of $150 billion of stimulus into the long-suffering eurozone, but questions about details and implementation remained, dealers said.
The euro had already tumbled sharply after three central banks — the People’s Bank of China, the European Central Bank (ECB), and the Bank of England — last week took policy action to help their respective economies.
However, traders viewed the ECB’s widely-expected move to cut its main interest rate to record lows as not enough to address the eurozone’s ills.
The dollar meanwhile fetched 79.68 yen in Tokyo, little changed from 79.62 yen in New York trade after a weak US jobs report for June led to renewed concerns about the state of the world’s largest economy.
The dollar was higher against other Asia-Pacific currencies.
The greenback firmed to Sg$1.2725 from Sg$1.2693 on Friday, to 1,142.70 South Korean won from 1,138.95 won, and to 31.77 Thai baht from 31.65 baht.
The dollar also rose to 55.92 Indian rupees from 55.44 rupees, to Tw$29.92 from Tw$29.90, and to 9,440.00 Indonesian rupiah from 9,415.00 rupiah.
The greenback was higher at 41.98 Philippine pesos from 41.80 pesos while the Australian dollar changed hands at US$1.0184 against US$1.0251.
The Chinese yuan was at 12.49 yen from 12.56 yen.
