Asian session: The euro weakened

The euro weakened as concern that growth and sentiment in the 17-nation region is faltering overshadowed prospects that a leaders’ meeting this week will lead to solutions to the debt crisis. EU leaders will meet in Brussels on Oct. 18-19 as Greece seeks to justify renewed aid and Spain holds out on tapping a 500-billion ($645.4 billion) permanent rescue fund, the European Stability Mechanism. The euro fell versus most of its major peers amid uncertainty over whether Spain will seek a bailout and before a report forecast to show investor confidence weakened in Germany, the region’s biggest economy. The ZEW Center for European Economic Research will probably say its index of expectations among German investors and analysts was at minus 14.9 this month from minus 18.2 in September, according to the median estimate of economists in a Bloomberg News survey. ZEW is due to release the figures tomorrow, and its gauge for current conditions dropped to 11.8 in October from 12.6 in the previous period, analysts predicted.

The Australian dollar dropped before the Reserve Bank releases tomorrow minutes of its October meeting, while its New Zealand counterpart slid after a report showed services shrank. Bank of New Zealand Ltd. and Business New Zealand said today that their Performance of Services Index fell to 49.6 in September. It was the first time since October 2009 that the gauge was below 50, the dividing line between expansion and contraction.

EUR / USD: during the Asian session the pair fell to $1.2900.

GBP / USD: during the Asian session the pair fell to the floor of a figure to $1.6025.

USD / JPY: during the Asian session, the pair rose to Y78.60, updating week’s high.