Euro Weakens Amid Concern Region’s Leaders May Fail in Debt Crisis Fix

The euro declined against most of its major counterparts as concern increased that European leaders will struggle to agree to measures needed to stem the region’s debt crisis at a summit this week.

The 17-nation currency traded little changed against the dollar as three euro-area officials said that the European Central Bank may announce a range of measures tomorrow to stimulate bank lending. European leaders gather for a summit in Brussels the next two days. Australia’s dollar rose after gross domestic product grew faster than economists forecast last quarter.

“You have a lot of uncertainty in the market before the meetings,” said Fabian Eliasson, head of U.S. currency sales at Mizuho Financial Group Inc. in New York. “It really comes down to the next two days. The market has high expectations for this and if the market is disappointed you could see risk being taken off and really strong moves.”

The euro was little changed at $1.3409 at 12:34 p.m. in New York, after rising as much as 0.4 percent. It traded at 104.13 yen. The Japanese currency was little changed at 77.66 per dollar.