European Monetary Union

The euro/U.S. dollar spot rate hit its lowest level in about two years during Friday's session. The ever increasing concerns over the European debt crisis have caused the Euro to slide lower and also sparked speculations that the Economic and Monetary Union might be falling apart. The rumors of a...

The European unemployment rate climbed in May as companies in Austria, Italy, and Spain increased layoffs. An ongoing economic slump caused the unemployment rate to climb to the highest level since the inception of the euro. The unemployment rate in May climbed to 11.1 percent from 11.0 percent in...

Chinese manufacturing growth continued to slow in June, according to the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing. The slowing pace of of China's largest economic sector raises further fears over the health of the Chinese economy. The official Purchasing Manager's Index (PMI) fell to 50.2 in...

According to European Council President Hermann Van Rompuy, European leaders have agreed on approximately $150 billion in new growth measures. This new growth package reportedly contains project bonds. Van Rompuy was speaking after the close of the first day of discussions in Brussels. European...

Rumors are circulating that the Treasury department is pushing for a TARP-style bailout of the European banking sector. Charlie Gasparino of Fox Business News is responsible for this latest rumor, but there are lots of problems to a European TARP or bank recapitalization. Here is why... First of...

This morning, Egan-Jones Ratings slashed its rating of the Kingdom of Spain another two notches, after cutting it two notches last week, to a rating of B. For those who are unsure, Egan-Jones uses a similar scale to S&P and Fitch, so investment grade is above BBB- and sub-investment grade is BB...

From Spanish banks to Greek elections to the ECB/China/IMF saving the world rumor du jour, there has been a flurry of headlines out of Europe for the better part of the last year and it is these headlines that have been moving the market. There is reason to be alarmed and to fear, not from a Greek...

Tomorrow is the informal meeting of the European Commission and the European heads of state, which is a meeting to help set the agenda and decide on exactly what they will sign at the formal meeting in June. There will be lots of headlines and quoting of every person there, but I think that there...

Unless you have been living under a mountain, you would know that Europe has had problems recently. The rest of this week will be a real test of the effectiveness of austerity policies, as the economic data docket is loaded with all sorts of data. As confidence wanes in the resiliency and...

There has been a lot of weakness in growth currencies recently, largely due to fears of a continued global slowdown. Also, a weak Euro has been one of the biggest consequences of the deflating European economy. The EUR/USD Dollar cross rate has been extremely weak over the last 10 months, trading...

“The Euro is falling!” they scream on CNBC.  Who cares!? Not me.  It’s supposed to be falling.  They’ve got too much debt and slowing growth.  EUR denominated rates should come down and there is growing risk the European Monetary Union will break up.  By themselves, these facts (assertions?) do...

According to The Gartman Letter (TGL), the forex world has changed significantly over the past 24 hours. The forex market went from relative stability to high volatility within a few seconds yesterday. This was a result of the ratings agencies downgrading Greek and Portuguese debt and threatening...