Euro saunters lower on Greece debt worries

(AP) — The euro drifted lower Friday after vague promises of support for Greece by the EU left markets worried about the common currency.

The euro bought $1.3614 in midmorning trading compared with $1.3686 in New York the night before. It traded as low as $1.3609 Friday, putting it near nine-month lows, but well off the $1.51 it bought in November.

On Thursday, Europe pledged to help Greece with its debt crisis. Despite offering few details of how a bailout might work, the move raised confidence that instability would not spread to countries like Portugal and Spain.

While that appeared to mollify markets in Asia and Europe, at least timidly, the lack of concrete measures left currency traders wary.

The euro has suffered recently from concern over the ability of Greece and, to a lesser extent, Portugal and Spain, to rein in their deficits.

"The only sound bite was that 'Greece is not alone' which is pretty much stating the obvious," said Michael Hewson, an analyst at CMC Markets in London.

"It would seem that the EU leaders are hoping to buy a bit of time in the hope that the crisis will ease, but what won't change is the euro53 billion worth of funding (Greece) needs to find to finance its debt, the equivalent of 20 percent of its GDP," Hewson said.

"In the meantime the euro will continue to be the whipping boy of the currency markets."

In other trading, the British pound rose $1.5705 compared with $1.5697 in New York the night before. The dollar edged higher to 90.23 Japanese yen from 89.74 yen.