by Calculated Risk on 5/18/2010 07:53:00 PM

From The Times: German shocks to the market push euro down again

The euro ... slid even further to $1.212, its lowest level against the greenback since April 17, 2006, after Germany instituted a ban from midnight last night on the naked short sale of shares in the country’s top financial institutions and the bonds of eurozone countries.

Germany also prohibited the purchase of credit default swaps (CDS) on eurozone government bonds, other than for hedging purposes.

That calls for an updated graph ...

Click on graph for larger image in new window.

The Euro has only been around since Jan 1999. The graph shows the number of dollars per euro since Jan 1, 1999.

The dashed line is the current exchange rate. This is the lowest level for the euro against the dollar since April 2006.

Just a little further (below 1.1667 dollars per euro), and we will be discussing the lowest level since 2003.

From CNBC: Pre-Market Data shows the S&P 500 off about 9 points or just under 1%. Dow futures are off about 70 points. The European markets will be interesting ...