Euro Gains After S&P Clarifies France’s Rating

The euro advanced from a one-month low versus the dollar after Standard & Poor’s clarified that France’s credit rating remains AAA, easing concern that a crisis was imminent in the region’s second-largest economy.

The 17-nation currency advanced earlier versus most major peers after Italy drew double the bids for the amount on offer at a bill sale, damping bets the nation will face a challenge funding itself. Greece chose an interim prime minister. Higher- yielding currencies including Brazil’s real and Norway’s krone rose against the dollar as U.S. stocks advanced.

“There were heavy rumors related to a French downgrade, but now they’ve been denied,” said Sebastien Galy, a senior foreign-exchange strategist at Societe Generale SA in London. “It’s part of a wider stabilization in risk, but we still have a tremendous amount of uncertainty in the system.”

The euro gained 0.7 percent to $1.3633 at 1:31 p.m. New York time, after rising earlier as much as 0.8 percent and falling to as low as $1.3484, the weakest level since Oct. 10. It rose 0.4 percent to 105.78 yen after falling earlier to 104.73 yen, the lowest since Oct. 12. The yen strengthened 0.3 percent to 77.601 per dollar.

The S&P 500 Index of stocks rose 1.2 percent.

Europe’s shared currency rallied from little-changed as S&P said a message was erroneously sent today to some of its subscribers suggesting France’s top-notch credit rating had been lowered. It affirmed the country’s AAA rating.