The euro fell to a decade low versus the Japanese yen Monday with more falls expected as concerns about the financing needs of highly indebted euro zone countries plagued the shared currency into the new calendar year. The euro fell as low as 98.71 yen on the EBS trading platform in early Asian trade, its lowest since late 2000, extending falls on Friday when it broke below 100 yen to finish the year down around 8 percent. It recovered to trade flat for the day at 99.60 yen in Europe, with liquidity thin because most Asian markets as well as the UK and US were closed for New Year holidays. Versus the dollar, the euro was steady at $1.2947, less than a cent above its 2011 low of $1.2858 hit last week. Worries about high sovereign debt levels and a lack of policy solutions to the region's 2-year-old debt crisis were expected to push the euro lower in the coming weeks and months. However, the slide may be limited by periodic short-covering rallies as investors trim hefty bets against the currency, with Commodity Futures Trading Commission data on Friday showing short euro positions swelled to a record high in the latest week. “There's still a lot of pressure on the euro due to concerns about the refinancing needs of some euro zone countries in the first quarter,” said Arne Lohmann Rasmussen, head of currency research at Danske Bank in Copenhagen.
