Euro is stable against dollar

The euro steadied against the dollar on Monday amid renewed worries surrounding Greece's massive debt, analysts said. In London deals, the European single currency stood at $1.4525 compared with $1.4526 late in New York on Friday. Against the yen, the dollar fell to 80.63 yen from 80.82 yen. Eurozone finance ministers on Saturday cleared the way for Greece to receive the next 12-billion-euro slice of the country's 110-billion-euro ($160-billion) EU-IMF bailout. However in a new twist to the debt crisis, ratings agency Standard & Poor's on Monday warned that debt rollover plans for Greece could amount to a "selective default." "The announcement from S&P temporarily took some of the upward momentum out of the euro," said Lee Hardman, currency economist at The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ in London. Markets were meanwhile looking ahead to Thursday, when the European Central Bank (ECB) is expected to announce an increase in the key eurozone interest rate, by 0.25 percentage points to 1.5 percent in a bid to curb inflation. The ECB wants to bring eurozone inflation that stands at 2.7 percent back towards its target of just below 2.0 percent. It will this week also consider the broader macro-economic picture, which includes unemployment that remained at 9.9 percent for the third month in a row in May amid signs the 17-nation economy was cooling down. Traders in Europe were also paying close attention to events in the United States. "Market attention was clearly dominated by Greek events last week but the release on Friday of better than expected US manufacturing ISM data has turned attention back to one of the other key elements of risk appetite -- the outlook for the US economy," said Jane Foley, senior currency strategist at Rabobank. "Alongside the eurozone crisis and concerns related to the slowdown in China, disappointing US economic data has been a critical element behind the drop in risk appetite since early May." In London on Monday, the euro changed hands at $1.4525 against $1.4526 late in New York on Friday, at 117.12 yen (117.41), £0.9006 (0.9035) and 1.2324 Swiss francs (1.2316). The dollar stood at 80.63 yen (80.82) and 0.8484 Swiss francs (0.8475). The pound was at $1.6127 (1.6078). On the London Bullion Market, gold prices gained to $1,494.40 an ounce from $1,483 late on Friday.