Asian session: The euro fell

The euro fell to a two-month low as finance ministers from the currency bloc struggled to agree on Greek aid, curbing demand for the common currency. The 17-nation euro slid versus most of its major peers after Luxembourg’s Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker said the ministers will meet again on Nov. 20 to discuss Greece, putting off a decision on how to cover the nation’s need for additional financing of as much as 32.6 billion euros ($41 billion).  Euro-area finance ministers will gather in an “extraordinary meeting” next week to discuss Greece’s financing needs, they said in a statement, read out by Juncker at the conclusion of a meeting in Brussels. The ministers also granted Greece until 2016 to cut the deficit to 2 percent of gross domestic product.

In Germany, the ZEW Center for European Economic Research’s gauge assessing the current economic situation probably fell to 8 this month, according to the median estimate of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News before today’s report. That would be the lowest since June 2010 and compares with a reading of 10 in October. Its index of investor and analyst expectations, which aims to predict economic developments six months in advance, may have recovered to minus 10 in November from minus 11.5 in the previous month, a separate poll showed.

The yen gained against all of its most-traded counterparts, reversing an earlier drop, as Asian shares slid. A report yesterday showed the nation’s economy shrank in the third quarter by the most since last year’s earthquake. Today, the Trade Ministry released final figures on industrial output, which confirmed that it weakened 4.1 percent in September from the prior month, the biggest drop since March 2011.

EUR / USD: during the Asian session the pair fell to $ 1.2670.

GBP / USD: during the Asian session the pair fell to $ 1.5855.

USD / JPY: during the Asian session the pair fell to Y79.20.

The European session starts with French data, as 0745GMT sees the release of the September current account numbers and the third