* Traders position ahead of G8 meeting, but expectations low
* Greek politics, Spain bank problems still weigh
* Worries on Europe drive support for dollar, yen
By Wanfeng Zhou
NEW YORK, May 18 (Reuters) - The euro rallied from a
four-month low against the dollar on Friday as investors pared
bets against the single currency after a more than 3 percent
drop this month, but concerns about Greece and Spain were likely
to keep it under pressure.
Positioning ahead of the weekend meeting of the Group of 8
major industrialized nations and technical support also helped,
traders said, as the euro approached its January low of $1.2623.
Gains accelerated after a wave of stops were triggered in the
euro's grind higher.
Despite Friday's rebound, investors preferred the relative
safety of the U.S. dollar and the Japanese yen as worries about
Europe persisted after Moody's cut the credit ratings of 16
Spanish banks late on Thursday.
Some traders said investors were wary of placing bets ahead
of the meeting of the G8, even though expectations were low that
any significant actions would be taken to address the euro zone
debt crisis. Extreme short positioning in the euro, which hit a
record high in the week ended May 15, may have also prompted a
squeeze in short bets.
Although no economic policy decisions are expected from the
G8, officials said U.S. President Barack Obama hoped to promote
discussion on steps to resolve the euro zone
crisis.
"Even as position squaring dominates ahead of this weekend's
summit of G8 leaders, strong undercurrents of risk aversion
persist, as a result of which the U.S. dollar remains net bought
on balance," said Samarjit Shankar, managing director of global
FX strategy at BNY Mellon in Boston.
The euro tumbled to $1.2640, not far from its trough
of 2012, before recovering to trade 0.5 percent higher at
$1.2763. It hit a session peak of $1.2794 after stops were
triggered around $1.2750.
The euro was still on track for its third straight week of
losses, based on Reuters data. The 14-day exponential relative
strength index posted at 15.526, leaving the euro in oversold
territory since May 7.
The euro fell to 100.17 yen, its lowest since
early February, before reversing course to trade at 100.97, up
0.3 percent on the day.
Strong demand for the greenback helped drive the dollar
index to a four-month high early in the global session,
but those gains evaporated.
Currency speculators increased bets in favor of the U.S.
dollar to the highest level since at least mid-2008, according
to data from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission released
on Friday.
The value of the dollar's net long position rose to $28.52
billion in the week ended May 15, from $20.95 billion the
previous week.
"Although the U.S. dollar remains overbought, the
headline-driven market continues to increase the appeal of the
greenback as the turmoil in Europe intensifies," said David
Song, currency analyst at DailyFX.
SPAIN AND GREECE STILL LEAD THE MARKET
France's new president, Francois Hollande, said on Friday
Spain's banks should be recapitalized by Europe's bailout funds
and everything must be done to keep Greece in the euro zone.
"If it's not Greece, it's Spain that we talk about to sell
the euro. People are looking for bad news and they are concerned
there appears to be no solution," said Lutz Karpowitz, currency
analyst at Commerzbank in London.
Greece faces fresh elections on June 17, with many investors
increasingly concerned a victory for anti-bailout parties could
lead to Greece exiting the euro zone.
A recent poll showed Greece's conservatives have overtaken
the anti-bailout leftist SYRIZA in popularity, although the
volatile political mood meant most analysts saw the outcome of
the elections as a significant risk.
Worries about Spain's banks and prospects of more state
bailouts for lenders kept the country's borrowing costs high.
Talk of a ban on naked short-selling of Spanish banking
stocks lifted Europe's bank shares. This brought some
relief for the euro, but the common currency's medium-term
prospects remained bearish.
Reflecting that, one-month euro/dollar implied volatility
climbed to around 11.55 percent while three-month risk
reversals - a measure of relative demand for bets on the euro
rising or falling - were at -3.5 vols on trading platform GFI in
favor of more euro weakness.
The dollar was down 0.4 percent against the yen at
79.02 yen after hitting a three-month low of 78.99, according to
Reuters data. Traders cited stop-loss orders below 79.00 yen and
78.80 yen, while offers were likely to cap dollar gains around
79.50.
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