Euro climbs despite Spanish crisis

THE euro climbed to the highest in nearly a week yesterday as US Treasury yields fell, pulling back from a two-year high, with the euro rebounding from losses from earlier in the week ahead of a policy meeting of the European Central Bank.

Investors shrugged off political uncertainty emerging from Spain before the ECB meeting next week where policymakers are expected to reveal plans to unwind their multi-year stimulus policies.

The euro briefly waned against the US dollar after the release of US jobless claims data, which showed the lowest reading in 44 years and a record high reading on the Philadelphia Fed Business Index.

“The problem the dollar’s having is that the good news is already priced in,” said Marc Chandler, chief global currency strategist at Brown Brothers Harriman. “And that good news is the Fed is likely to hike rates in December.”

World stock markets slipped from a record high yesterday after a flurry of tepid corporate earnings reports but were off session lows as Wall Street pared losses, while demand for safe-haven assets pushed US Treasury yields lower.

Signs of poor demand for Apple’s iPhone 8 dragged each of the major Wall Street indexes down a day after the Dow Industrials cracked the 23,000 barrier for the first time.

European shares notched their largest drop in two months on concerns over political upheaval in Spain and after disappointing results from large companies such as Unilever, France’s Publicis and Germany’s Kion.

In Dublin the Iseq was down 0.39pc at 6,747.46. Decliners included the banks, with AIB and Bank of Ireland both lower as the tracker mortgage redress probe dominated news headlines.