The euro dropped to a three-and-a-half year low against the pound on Monday, and hit multi-month lows against the U.S. dollar and the yen as the weekend’s Greek election results fanned fears over the country’s future in the euro zone.
During European late morning trade, the euro was down against the U.S. dollar, with EUR/USD shedding 0.42% to hit 1.3028.
The euro found some support after official data showed that German factory orders rose by a seasonally adjusted 2.2% in March, easily surpassing expectations for a 0.5% increase.
But market sentiment remained dominated by fears that the weekend’s election results in Greece and France would hamper attempts to resolve Europe’s debt crisis. In Greece, neither of the two pro-bailout parties secured enough votes to form a majority in parliament, as voters favored smaller parties who campaigned against the harsh government austerity program.
The results threw the future of the country’s international bailout agreement into doubt and fuelled fears over a possible Greek exit from the euro zone.
Meanwhile, French President Nicolas Sarkozy was defeated by socialist candidate Fran