Grexit: Euro falls as markets take a battering on Greek default fears
The euro tumbled to a one-month low against the dollar this morning with investors unable to shake-off concerns surrounding Greece's ability to meet its upcoming loan repayments.
European markets are also being pushed lower by the crisis, with the FTSE falling by 35 points to 6,996.36 at 11.30am.
Greek officials are in Brussels today to attempt to finally thrash out a financial aid deal with Eurozone ministers – with the latter likely to make compromises on a number of "red lines" to finance reforms it has previously refused to cross.
Read more: What will happen if Greece defaults on its loan repayment to the IMF?
This morning the euro fell as much as 0.9 per cent before recovering to $1.0903, compounding yesterday's declines.
Kit Juckes from Societe Generale commented:
The twists and turns of the EUR/USD rate are far from over. Last week's CFTC positioning data showed a further fall in the EUR short on the IMM but not a huge fall, suggesting that only a part of the position has been cut in the correction. RSIs have flipped from very overbought in EUR/USD two weeks ago to flirting with oversold positions already this morning.
Investors were spooked this weekend by Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis said the country wouldn't be able to pay the €1.6bn it owes the IMF next month.
Spanish stocks have been hit particularly badly today after the governing Popular Party was crushed in local and regional elections while anti-austerity Podemos and the centre-right Ciudadanos made significant gains. The country's benchmark Ibex 35 index was down 31 points this morning after falling two per cent yesterday.