Euro advances against dollar, yen as concerns about Greece ease (Reuters) (08-03-2010)

LONDON, March 8 (Reuters) - The euro gained against the dollar and the yen on Monday on easing concerns over Greek debt, while above-forecast U.S. jobs data increased investor demand for risk, boosting higher-yielding currencies.

The euro gained after French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Sunday hinted plans could be in place to support Greece, promising that euro zone countries would help the indebted country if its financial problems worsened.

International Monetary Fund managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn also told Reuters on Monday that Greece's financial problems were unlikely to spread to other euro zone countries with high levels of public debt.

Sarkozy's comments helped the spread between Greek and German government bond yields to narrow, while the cost of insuring Greek debt against default fell.

At 1250 GMT, the euro was up 0.3 percent at $1.3665, with traders saying near-term resistance was around $1.3712, its March 4 high.

Against the yen, the euro rose 0.4 percent to 123.47 yen, having hit a two-week high of 123.80 yen on trading platform EBS earlier on Monday.

Source: Reuters