2010.11.1510:38:00UTC+00Euro Struggles As Ireland Works To Calm Investors

The euro remained on the defensive Monday morning in New York, even as Ireland denied it has sought emergency funding from to stave off a debt crisis.

Ireland's EU neighbors may be keen to head off any crisis for fear that it will spread to Portugal, Spain and Greece. On Sunday, Ireland's Finance Ministry said that "Ireland has made no application for external support."

Still, the euro has come well off its yearly highs versus the dollar in the past few sessions. The euro was near $1.3650 this morning, paring some early losses as rises stocks fueled some risk appetite.

Earlier this month, the euro hit a 10-month high near $1.43.

In economic news from the US, retail sales increased by much more than economists had been anticipating in October.

With auto sales showing a notable increase in the month of October, the Commerce Department said overall retail sales surged up by 1.2 percent in October following an upwardly revised 0.7 percent increase in September

The euro snapped back from Friday's big losses versus the yen to fetch Y113. The euro hit a monthly low of Y111 late last week, as Ireland's debt problems overshadowed developments from the G20 meeting in South Korea.

The euro failed to rally versus the sterling after losing notable ground last week. The pair was at 0.8480, moving back toward this summer's yearly low of 0.8067.

World leaders made no concrete plans, but agreed to tackle trade imbalances and encouraged the currencies move freely in the open market.

The eurozone's trade balance with the rest of the world rose into surplus in September from a deficit in August led by a fall in imports, official figures showed on Monday.

The unadjusted surplus was 2.9 billion euros, compared with a deficit of 5 billion euros in August, Eurostat said. Economists had forecast a deficit of 0.8 billion euros.

Copyright(c) 2010 News.com, Inc. All Rights Reserved