French politics pushes euro below US$1.05

London

THE euro fell below US$1.05 for the first time in six weeks on Wednesday, hit by a combination of concern over France's presidential election campaign and growing expectations for a rise in US interest rates.

With the minutes of this month's US Federal Reserve meeting due later, the dominant tone was consolidation for the US dollar and some investors returning to the security of the yen, up half a per cent against the greenback and 0.8 per cent on the euro.