FOREX-Euro falls as ECB rate cut expectations grow
* Euro hits 3-week lows vs dollar, sterling
* Dollar hits 1-month high vs yen at 93.62 yen JPY=
* Inflation data eyed, EZ services PMI little changed
(Updates throughout, changes dateline prvs TOKYO)
By Tamawa Desai
LONDON, Jan 6 (Reuters) - The euro fell broadly on Tuesday on strengthening market views that the European Central Bank will shift to a more aggressive monetary easing stance as inflation continues to fall back.
The euro fell to 3-week lows against both the dollar and sterling as a more dovish tone by some ECB policymakers and expectations that euro zone inflation will come below the central bank's target of 2 percent prompted market players to take profits from a euro rally last month.
"The recent euro sell-off has been profit-taking after upsides to euro/dollar and euro/sterling failed, but that is almost done," said Geoffrey Yu, currency strategist at UBS in London.
The euro faces more downside as "it is the only currency still open to a policy reversal," he said, adding that if inflation comes in below 2 percent as markets expect, there would be no case for the ECB to hold out against rate cuts on price stability grounds.
On Monday, ECB Governing Council member Vitor Constancio said monetary policy would respond with interest rate cuts to maintain inflation around 2 percent if necessary. [ID:nL5259330]
"European monetary policy does not only worry that inflation rises a lot, but also if it falls a lot," he said in Lisbon.
That follows remarks by ECB Vice President Lucas Papademos, who said on Sunday that more rate cuts may be warranted to shield the euro zone from recession. [ID:nL54973]
At 0904, the euro was down 1.3 percent at $1.3423 after falling to $1.3400, the lowest since Dec. 15. The common currency was also down 1.2 percent at 91.40 pence, after hitting a low of 91.28 pence. It had reached a record high of 98.05 pence last week.
The dollar hit a one-month high against the yen at 93.84 yen JPY=.
The ECB has cut interest rates to help the euro zone economy but the euro still enjoys a comparative advantage over peers such as the dollar and the yen with euro zone rates at 2.5 percent versus close to zero in the United States and Japan. Continued...
Citadel enters the fray
Kenneth Griffin's powerful hedge fund has waded into the case of Goldman Sachs' purloined computer code, suing three of its former employees for setting up Teza Technologies. Full Article | Full Coverage


