NEW YORK: The euro was stable against the dollar on Wednesday after a two-day decline as investors waited to see whether debt-ridden Spain would ask for a bailout for its public finances.
Traders said the euro is likely to trade in a range in the near term, with good support from its 200-day moving average around $1.2820, followed by the Oct. 1 low of $1.2802. A break below there would leave it vulnerable to more falls.
"The euro fell towards the 200-day simple moving average and we saw it rebound ahead of that level," said Eric Viloria, senior currency strategist at Forex.com in New York. "We are expecting the euro to continue to consolidate between there and $1.31 until we can get any major new catalysts."
European Union leaders are scheduled to meet at the end of next week, with Spain expected to be a focus of discussion. Euro zone finance ministers delivered a united defense of Spain at a meeting this week, saying the country did not need a bailout, at least for now.
The euro was little changed at $1.2881, erasing the losses which had taken it to a session low of $1.2833 on Reuters data, the weakest since Oct. 1.
A Spanish bailout deal is seen by most traders as positive for the euro because it would activate the European Central Bank's bond-buying program aimed at reducing borrowing costs for debt-ridden countries.
The euro has rallied 7 percent since hitting a two-year low of $1.2040 in late July after ECB head Mario Draghi pledged to do whatever it takes to preserve the euro.
"The market had factored in that the ECB had gone to all these lengths to resurrect the bond-buying plan with Spain in mind, and Spain just hasn't taken the bait as yet," Standard Bank's head of G10 currency research Steve Barrow said.
"If Spain had made that request when the euro was strong and bond yields had already come down quite a bit, positive momentum could have pushed the euro/dollar on to $1.35. The problem now is that maybe their chance has been missed, and instead perhaps Spain will now not do anything until yields start to move up."
Unease over Spain's future, which has pushed investors back to less risky debt despite the low yields on offer, was reflected in strong demand in a 3.1 billion euro sale of five-year German bonds, which are seen as a safe-haven investment, on Wednesday.
Draghi said the region faced a long road to recovery, despite the ECB's plan to buy the bonds of indebted euro zone countries, and that there was no alternative to budget austerity.
Investors are also fretting about whether Greece will agree terms with its "troika" of international lenders - the European Union, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund - for the next tranche of funds needed to keep the country afloat.
Without the 31.5-billion-euro tranche, Greece says it will run out of money by the end of November.
German newspapers attacked "ungrateful" Greeks for the hostile public reception they gave Angela Merkel in Athens and some criticised the Chancellor's generosity for promising they would stay in the euro zone.
Merkel reaffirmed her commitment to keeping Greece in the euro but offered Prime Minister Antonis Samaras no concrete relief ahead of a report next month by the "troika" of international creditors on Greece's progress on savings targets.
"They haven't met many, or most of their goals and are not likely in the next couple of months, so it really depends on the willingness of the troika to keep paying for Greece," said Tatjana Michel, director of currency analysis at Charles Schwab in San Francisco.
She said comments by European politicians and Greek leaders suggested both sides want Greece to stay in the euro, so "I can imagine that they will find ways to somehow finance Greece."
Against the yen, the euro was flat at 100.84 yen, while the dollar rose 0.1 percent to 78.27 yen. The dollar index was flat at 79.935, having earlier hit 80.186, its strongest since Sept. 11.
The Australian dollar rose after a successful sale of Australian long-dated bonds boosted demand. It was last up 0.4 percent against the US dollar at $1.0240.
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