Posted on 05/31/2005 12:34:57 PM PDT by anonymoussierra
The euro tumbled to a fresh seven-month low against the US dollar in European morning trade on Tuesday as trading desks returned to full strength after Monday's holidays in the US and UK.
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The shared currency fell across the board as political uncertainty rose in the wake of Sunday's French rejection of the proposed European Union constitution by an unexpectedly wide margin of 54.9 per cent to 45.1 per cent.
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With opinion polls indicating that the French No vote may have hardened opposition to the constitution in the Netherlands, which votes on Wednesday, "this has placed more significant doubts on the future direction of the EU with 25 members rather than the initial 15," said Derek Halpenny, senior currency economist at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi.
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President Jacques Chirac's decision to name Dominique de Villepin as prime minister, following the resignation of Jean-Pierre Raffarin, also appeared to go down badly with the market, sending the euro lower still when the announcement was made.
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"Dominique de Villepin, has a social democratic stance on economic policy, which might help to persuade the anti-reform minded French electorate, but would cost France precious time to reform its outdated economic model. In the case of Villepin being appointed the euro would slide further," Hans Redeker, global head of forex strategy at BNP Paribas, had said prior to Mr Chirac's decision.
Further evidence of the economic plight of the eurozone also emerged on Tuesday, with eurozone-wide industrial and consumer sentiment declining in May. French unemployment also remained at a five-year high of 10.2 per cent, while German joblessness remained at 11.8 per cent.
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Technical factors also played a part with the euro breaching a key barrier of $1.2460 against the dollar in Asian trade, precipitating further selling as stop-loss orders were triggered. Dealers said $1.2140 was the next target level.
After news of Mr Villeprin's appointment, the euro was down 1.3c at $1.2343 against the dollar, as well as falling Y1.4 to Y133.34 against the yen, 0.5p to £0.6783 against sterling and 0.6 centimes to SFr1.5381 against the Swiss franc.
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Elsewhere the yen was broadly strong, firming Y0.2 to Y196.55 against sterling and holding steady at Y107.98 against the dollar, as Japanese unemployment fell to 4.4 per cent in April, the lowest level since 1998.
But the Australian dollar fell 0.4c to $0.7562 against the greenback as Australia's current account deficit hit a record A$15.65bn in the first quarter of 2005 and retail sales fell 0.5 per cent month-on-month in April.
LOL! Good headline. Pretty boy deserves it.
Villepinhead
Thank you
Keep falling Euro. Maybe I can finally take my trip to Ireland.
Hold on, let me see if I can muster up a tear.....any second now.....just be patient.....maybe if I hit my thumb with a hammer....
Good news for travelers, non?
1.00 USD = 0.812476 EUR
Gettin there.
Naming Villepin was like trying to put out a ship fire by sinking it.
Thank you Chirac is total communist 1=1 0=0 EU constitution is 0 this is total Chirac me me me me
438 pages!
Who knows whats in it? Probably very few to no one.
"Naming Villepin was like trying to put out a ship fire by sinking it... in gasoline.":}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}Thank you"brooklyn dave""Maybe I can finally take my trip to Ireland."come to my country Poland good friend you do will be happy
More of a slide than a fall. Not having a Constitutional State behind the currency would be a weakness for the long run.
Serves them right....France deserves that!
And dropping. I have an alert set to let me know when the Euro gets to the point where you have to carry around a wheelbarrow of them to buy a beer.
"Dominique de Villepin, has a social democratic stance on economic policy, which might help to persuade the anti-reform minded French electorate, but would cost France precious time to reform its outdated economic model. In the case of Villepin being appointed the euro would slide further," Hans Redeker, global head of forex strategy at BNP Paribas, had said prior to Mr Chirac's decision.
Further evidence of the economic plight of the eurozone also emerged on Tuesday, with eurozone-wide industrial and consumer sentiment declining in May. French unemployment also remained at a five-year high of 10.2 per cent, while German joblessness remained at 11.8 per cent."
Its available online: here
It seems to create a huge new layer of government with some pretty awesome powers, and definately has a socialist slant to it.
Bwa-hahahahahah. Unemployment at 11-12%, currency collapsing. It's almost funny if similar circumstances did not produce the stupid little klutz with the Chaplin mustache some 70 years ago.
I use this site for the conversions.
http://www.xe.com/ucc/
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