Euro gains as risk appetite revives

LONDON: The euro gained on Monday and the dollar dropped as last week´s strong U.S. jobs numbers and receding fears over a trade war helped a rebound in risk appetite, with higher yielding currencies also performing well.

With little crucial economic data due in Europe, traders will focus on a meeting of the euro zone finance ministers on Monday for any comments on trade protectionism after President Donald Trump´s decision to impose some tariffs.

While the euro fell last week as the European Central Bank gave a more-dovish-than-expected meeting, traders have pushed the euro higher as they bet investors will continue to put more money into a region where the economies are booming.

"With the euro zone enjoying a massive 3.5 percent GDP current account surplus and the euro not particularly volatile, we suspect it will be very hard for [euro zone] finance officials to talk down the euro," said Viraj Patel, an FX strategist at ING.

The euro rose to $1.2328, up 0.2 percent.

The single currency, after a strong start to 2018, remains below the three-year peak hit in February of $1.2556.The dollar, which has tended to fall when risk appetite is rising, meanwhile fell.