Euro hits new six-week low at $1.3327

LONDON: The European single currency tumbled Wednesday to a fresh six-week dollar low, as a surprisingly weak German bond sale intensified concerns over the eurozone sovereign debt crisis.

At about 1600 GMT, the euro slumped to $1.3327 -- a level last seen on October 6. That compared with $1.3507 late in New York on Tuesday.

Investors shunned Wednesday an issue of German 10-year bonds, considered the gold standard of eurozone debt, making bids of only 3.9 billion euros ($5.2 billion) for the 6.0 billion euros of securities on offer.

The German Finance Agency called the result a "reflection of the extraordinarily nervous market conditions."

"A failed bond auction in the benchmark 10-year sector is by itself a huge surprise, but that Germany failed to raise the full 6.0 billion euros gives ample concern about the funding markets for sovereign government," said Saxobank analyst Steen Jakobsen.