European currency falls amid protests in France, Italy, Belgium — Bloomberg

 The euro fell against major world currencies as widespread protests in France deepened worries about the country’s fiscal health, and tensions around Ukraine escalated, Bloomberg reported.

The European currency weakened half a percent versus the dollar in Asia Monday. The shared currency dropped as low as $1.1183 before paring some losses to trade around $1.1232 in Singapore. French bond futures declined as much as 52 ticks, while European stock futures slipped 0.3%, the agency said.

The protests in France could make it difficult for authorities to implement austerity measures, said Rodrigo Catril, a strategist at National Australia Bank. Investors also fear that Ukrainian strikes on Russian energy infrastructure that are continuing despite calls from Washington, could add to worries about higher oil prices.

"France’s fiscal problems are daunting enough in their own right, but are made even harder to fix by the upcoming presidential election [in 2027] and a hung Parliament, where consensus-building has often proved to be an impossible task," the agency quoted Barclays strategists led by Themistoklis Fiotakis as saying. "The medium-term outlook remains negative" for the euro, they added.