Asian session review: Euro drops on Greek concern

The euro dropped to its lowest level since 2001 against the yen and slid versus the dollar as speculation German Chancellor Angela Merkel is preparing for a Greek default curbed demand for the 17-nation currency.
“There’s a lot of chatter about Greece defaulting and either leaving or getting kicked out of the euro,” said Khoon Goh at ANZ National Bank Ltd.. “There’s event risk and uncertainty around whether or not the sovereign-debt crisis is reaching a point where things are going to boil over. The euro is coming off pretty aggressively.”
Officials in Merkel’s government are debating how to shore up German banks in the event that Greece fails to meet the budget-cutting terms of its aid package and is unable to get a bailout-loan payment. Merkel is due to hold talks on the debt crisis with European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso today.
“It feels like Germany is preparing itself for a debt default,” Jacques Cailloux, chief European economist at Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc, said. “Fatigue is setting in. Germany could be a first mover or other countries could be preparing too.”

EUR/USD fell to $1.3492 before recovered to $1.3598.
GBP/USD weakened to $1.5790 and later rebounced to $1.5820.
USD/JPY fell from Y77.60 to Y76.74  and still holds around lows.

There is no key data in Europe.