Euro

The euro showed weakness in the first half of 2010 as the European debt crisis emerged with Greece nearly defaulting on its sovereign debt. The euro fell from $1.50 in December 2009 to a 5-year low of $1.19 in June 2010 as the European debt crisis caused widespread talk that the euro might break completely apart. However, Eurozone leaders were able to cobble together a bailout package for Greece and Ireland that at least kept those countries afloat for the time being. The market continues to suspect that those countries eventually will have to restructure their debt, but the bailout at least pushed that default date out into the future and took the downward pressure off the euro. The euro in the second half of 2010 then recovered much of its losses as the Germany and global economy picked up steam in the latter part of 2010. This encouraged the European Central Bank to exit some of its emergency liquidity measures such as its 6-month and 12-month bank loan programs. The ECB during the financial crisis eased its key policy rate to only 1.00% versus the Fed’s policy rate range of zero to 0.25% and the ECB’s tighter monetary policy helped to support the euro during 2010.