Swiss Franc Reaches Record vs. Euro

The Swiss franc jumped to the all-time high against the euro and climbed against other most-traded currencies on concerns that the European Union policy makers won’t be able to reach agreement about measures to deal with the sovereign debt.

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble thinks that holders Greek bond should accept longer maturities. European Central Bank President
Jean-Claude Trichet, on the other hand, insists that imposing losses on bondholders would be equal to a default.
Jean-Claude Juncker, the Prime Minister of Luxembourg and the President of the Eurogroup, tries to find consensus. Juncker said in his interview on Radio Berlin-Brandenburg that the bailout for Greece the participation of investor should be “voluntary”.

Alan Ruskin, the global head of Group-of-10 foreign-exchange strategy at Deutsche Bank AG, agreed that Europe curbs risk appetite and drive traders to the safety of the franc:

The fact that the euro can’t really get a break against the Swissie tells you that story still lurks in the background. This risk bounce is just consolidation. In the short term, there’s enough there to overhang the market for there to be a slight bias toward risk-off.

EUR/CHF fell to 1.2046 from 1.2078 today as of 17:27 GMT after posting the record low of 1.2004. USD/CHF slipped to 0.8371 from 0.8428. CHF/JPY went up to 95.75 from 95.16.

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