Euro slides to 5-day low ahead of German ZEW as Greek woes weigh

The euro fell on 21 April, extending the previous day's losses, and hit a five-day low ahead of German ZEW survey data while concerns that Greece has not yet signed a deal with its creditors over the bailout and funding requirements of the troubled nation weighed.

A lack of agreement among Greece, the eurozone and the IMF is what the market has been worried about ever since the new Greek government took office a few months ago.

The EUR/USD fell to 1.0659 an hour ahead of the German data from the previous close of 1.0738 and extending the 0.64% loss of Monday (20 April). The move on the previous day was off a nine-day high of 1.0849.

The pair is now not far away from the 13 April low of 1.0520, beyond which it will be at its lowest since mid-March. A break of that will open 1.0462, the 12-year low hit on 13 March.

The forecast for the ZEW current situation index is 56.0, up from 55.1 in March, and that for economic sentiment is an increase from 54.8 to 55.3. The economic sentiment for the eurozone is seen at 63.7, up from 62.4 in March. The data is due at 9:00 GMT.

The market will then look for the services PMI from eurozone economies and weekly jobless figures from the US on Thursday (23 April) and the most important event listed for this week is Friday's durables goods orders data for March.

The forecast is for a gain of 0.8% from a 1.4% fall in February. The USD index has risen to 98.46 on Tuesday from 97.91 at the previous close, moving off Monday's 10-day low of 97.0 and extending the 0.5% rally of the previous session.