FOREX-Euro rallies from 2-year low but gains seen as tenuous

* Euro higher after hitting 2-year low vs dollar
* Draghi keeps door open for more interest rate cuts
* Euro vulnerable, little expected from finance ministers'
meeting
* Fed official says bank prepared to bring down unemployment

NEW YORK, July 9 (Reuters) - The euro gained against the
dollar o n Monday in a mostly technical rebound from a two-year
low touched earlier in the session even as the single currency
faces more headwinds from global growth concerns and the
region's ongoing debt crisis.
Euro zone finance chiefs were meeting to flesh out plans to
reinforce their common currency, but investors are cautious the
talks in Brussels may do little more than highlight the
limitations of last month's deal to help indebted states and
banks.
Diminished summit hopes also weighed on Spanish and Italian
bonds, with yields moving back up to unsustainable levels.
One bright spot came as European Central Bank President
Mario Draghi kept the door open to further interest rate cuts,
saying the bank would make any decision on further action based
on economic data. But investors cautioned it would not be enough
to sustain gains.
While lower rates typically reduce demand for a currency,
with the euro zone struggling to maintain economic growth, any
signs of action to stimulate the economy will be taken as
positive by investors.
For now though, investors were narrowly focused on the euro
having fallen too far, too fast. As it regained some temporary
footing, other investors who had bet against the euro were
forced to buy to reduce losses, giving it more strength.
"There's a significant amount of traders short euro and
therefore it is not particularly unusual to see unexplained
bursts of short-covering," said Kathy Lien, managing director of
FX strategy at BK Asset Management.
Currency speculators decreased their bets in favor of the
U.S. dollar in the latest week, according to data from the
Commodity Futures Trading Commission released on Monday.
.
The euro was last up 0.2 percent against the dollar
at $1.2314 after climbing as high as $1.2324 and well off a low
of $1.2255 hit in early trade.
The dollar was last down 0.1 percent at 79.58 yen,
moving away from a two-week high hit on Thursday, according to
Reuters data.
Pressure for action by European leaders is growing, but
there are nagging concerns that decisions on issues such as
banking supervision, how to use Europe's rescue money, aid to
Spain and Cyprus, and whether to grant concessions to Greece may
take months to finalize.
"The market's overall cautious mood and a rise in Spanish
and Italian bond yields are weighing on the euro, although
reports that Spain's budget targets may be relaxed is perhaps
providing a partial offset," said Nick Bennenbroek, head of
currency strategy at Wells Fargo in New York.
"For the week ahead we expect some consolidation in FX
markets, with an overall neutral directional view on the U.S.
dollar and other currencies," he said.
Strategists said further rises in Spanish and Italian bond
yields could push the euro down further, potentially bringing
the 2010 low into view.
European ministers were set to grant Spain an extra year to
reach its deficit targets in exchange for further budget savings
but remained far from pinning down details of bank rescues and
emergency bond-buying that are of greater concern to markets.

EURO SEEN MOVING LOWER
The euro came under pressure last week as doubts quickly
surfaced about the effectiveness of the June summit deal. It
fell further following a widely expected interest rate cut by
the European Central Bank on Thursday.
Deutsche Bank said the euro should reach $1.20 over the
summer.
"Even though the ECB disappointed other markets by
'only' cutting interest rates, we think the cut in the
deposit rate to zero is very significant for FX," the bank said
on Monday. "This implicitly signals a greater ECB easing bias
and a desire for a lower EUR," the bank said.
The euro has also dropped down the currency yield ranking,
from fourth- to second-lowest yielder.
"Only the Swiss franc now has lower funding costs, and FX
carry models are likely to further increase funding positions in
the EUR, mostly to the benefit of the USD," Deutsche Bank said.
Fresh signs of slowing global economic growth also kept
pressure on the euro.
Softer-than-expected Chinese inflation data on Monday added
to concerns Europe's debt crisis was weighing on global growth,
which is likely to stoke demand for the safe-haven dollar.
Meanwhile, Japan's core machinery orders - which strip out
utilities and shipbuilding - fell at a record pace in May, but
the market reaction was muted because it failed to change
expectations the Bank of Japan will stand pat on policy at its
meeting this week.
China and Japan's reports followed weak U.S. jobs data on
Friday.
The Federal Reserve is prepared to do more to bring down
U.S. unemployment and to steer inflation back up to the central
bank's 2 percent target, a top Fed official said on Monday.