Euro Falls on Concern S&P Downgrade Will Hurt French Debt Sale

Jan. 16 (Bloomberg) -- The euro weakened for a second day, touching an 11-year low versus the yen, after Standard & Poor’s stripped France of its top credit rating and cut eight other euro-zone nations.The shared currency extended a six-week-long slide against the greenback before a series of debt auctions this week by European nations begins with France’s bill sale today. Greece may resume talks with creditor banks after failing to agree on terms of a debt-swap deal last week. The yen and dollar strengthened against most major peers as concern that Europe’s financial turmoil will intensify boosted demand for safety. Classic Short Ugg Boots “Those downgrades provided another excuse for the speculative community to add to their short positions in euro,” said Mike Jones, a currency strategist at Bank of New Zealand Ltd. in Wellington. “We’ve got a few more European debt auctions out there as market sentiment continues to be tested.” A short position is a bet that an asset will decline in value.The euro fell 0.4 percent to $1.2628 at 10:39 a.m. in Tokyo from the close in New York on Jan. 13 when it touched $1.2624, the least since Aug. 25, 2010. The shared currency depreciated 0.5 percent to 97.06 yen after dropping to 97.04, the lowest since December 2000. The dollar dipped 0.2 percent to 76.85 yen.U.S. markets are closed for a public holiday today.France will auction as much as 8.7 billion euros ($11 billion) in bills today, followed by the European Financial Stability Facility’s 1.5 billion-euro sale of bills and Greece’s offering of bills tomorrow. Spain will also offer debt tomorrow and Jan. 19, while Portugal will sell bills on Jan. 18.