The euro rallied on Tuesday on speculation eurozone officials could raise the effective lending capacity of the bloc's rescue fund and on talk of increased Portuguese bond buying by the European Central Bank. The euro climbed closer to $1.30 as the New York session wound down but analysts cautioned it could easily resume its downward trend given nervousness over a heavy schedule of debt issuance by southern European countries this week.
A critical test for the euro will come on Wednesday when Portugal is scheduled to sell up to 1.25 billion euros of bonds in an auction that will signal whether the indebted country will be able to afford to raise funds in the debt market or be forced to take a bailout.
Federated Investors manages about $341.3 billion in assets. Salib oversees more than $3 billion. The euro last traded up 0.2 percent at $1.2980, having risen as high as $1.2994 on trading platform EBS. Euro resistance is at its 200-day moving average of $1.3072 while support is around $1.2794, the 61.8 percent Fibonacci retracement of a June-to-November rally.
Traders still expect the euro to retest its four-month low around $1.2875 set on Monday, with a break likely opening the door to a drop towards $1.2645 and $1.2590 in the coming weeks. Finance ministers are likely to consider next week the option of raising the effective lending capacity of the euro zone rescue fund as part of efforts to calm sovereign debt markets.
Market talk of increased Portuguese bond buying by the European Central Bank added to the euro's lustre in the New York session. The euro earlier also found support after Japan said it will purchase eurozone bonds to bolster confidence in the European Financial Stability Facility but in a volatile session momentum faded after Tokyo said it would use existing euro reserves to pay for the debt.
Tokyo's pledge came after China assured Spain it would invest in the indebted eurozone state's bonds - an assurance whose impact also proved fleeting. Portugal's prime minister and finance minister said on Tuesday Portugal has no plans to seek a bailout, and the government was doing everything possible to avoid doing so. The dollar rose 0.6 percent to 83.22 yen as recent optimism about the US economy helped lift bond yields. The Swiss franc extended the prior day's sell-off amid growing concern about the impact of the record-strong franc on the domestic economy. The dollar hit a one-month high of 0.9784 Swiss franc on EBS.