On the Forex markets this morning the Euro around was struggling to regain a foothold beyond the $1.27 area against the Dollar. Staying virtually unchanged from its level on Friday, the dollar at 1.2692 euro (+ 0,08%). A low of 1.2642 dollars was hit this morning, against a peak at 1.2708.

No significant movements to report against the yen (100.8 yen to the euro), sterling (0.8033) or the Swiss franc (1.2011). Since then the Euro has rebounded strongly during the US session to hit a high of 1.2790 this afternoon.

In one year the euro has lost 11% of its value against the U.S. dollar, against the yen 13.3%, 9% against the Pound and finally 4.3% against the Swiss franc. Even as things seem calm now, at least on the stock market, the turmoil in the Spanish banks have taken still weighs on the euro.

In addition, Moody’s lowered the rating on Thursday of 16 Spanish banks citing the reduced capacity of the Spanish State to provide financial support to several of them.

‘The biggest problem is Spain, where a quarter of the workforce and half of youth are unemployed, illustrating the loss of competitiveness of the country’, said a Professor of Economics and Public Finance at the Institute German Ifo..

Increasingly, pressure is mounting on the market now that the ECB is more aggressive, which might imply a weakening of the quality of the collateral required for the provision of loans.