Euro

In Wednesday’s trading session, the euro was able to recover from the lows it had on Tuesday that caused it to fall to one year lows against the US dollar. The euro was not able to rebound early in the day as announcements from Greece indicated that the country needed $13 billion by May 19th to make its debt repayments. However, Germany came to the country’s aid promising to provide the Greeks with the money needed by as early as May 7th.

The euro stood at US $1.3235 on Wednesday trading up from the year lows of US $1.3143 in trading in Tuesday. However, there is still concern about the euro and the other euro zone countries where sovereign debt continues to be a problem. On Tuesday, Standards & Poor’s Credit Agency downgraded Greece’s  credit rating to junk status and the fear among investors is that Moody’s and Fitch will do the same. Further, there are other countries in the euro zone that could also be facing financial difficulties. This is likely to cause trouble for the euro going forward.

Also important was the fact that Standards & Poor downgraded Spain’s credit rating today. This marks the third country in the euro zone to be marked down in the last three days.

The British pound moved from US $1.5258 in Tuesday trading to US $1.5212. The US dollar moved from 93.15 yen to 94.07 Japanese yen.

Venezuelan Bolivar

Though less commonly used, there is news out of Venezuela about the bolivar. In trading on Wednesday the bolivar fell drastically during the day. It feel to a new low against the US dollar. This was due to the fact that the dollar continues to outpace dollar sales by the government. The bolivar moved from VEF 7.6 on Tuesday to VEF 7.7 by the end of the day Wednesday. The Venezuelan government responded to the drop by launching a $50 million bond for institutional investors as well as offering $0 million in 90 day zero coupon bonds. These bonds were priced at 110 to 115 percent of their face value.

US Fed Meeting

Also happening on Wednesday was a meeting by the Federal Reserve Bank in the United States. Investors allowed stocks to rebound on the day, after falling by as much as 213 points in Tuesday’s trading. This came as the Fed announced reassurances.

The Federal Reserve said that the labor market in the US is beginning to improve. It also said that housing stats are edging up. There is indication that employers are still reluctant to hire, but this is to be expected. The Fed also announced that it plans to keep interest rates low for the extended period in the hopes that doing so will strengthen the economy more so. Most investors believe that the Fed is being conservative in its view of the economy as compared to the data provided.