Dollar gains against euro
Dollar climbs as investors worry if European and Japanese central banks can stimulate their respective economies.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The dollar gained against the euro and the yen Monday as investors continued to worry about further danger for the economies of Europe and Japan.
The greenback rose against the 15-nation euro, which fell 0.6 cents, or about 0.5% to $1.275, but fell against the British pound, which rose 1.2 cents, or about 0.8%, to $1.452.
The dollar also advanced ¥1.33, or about 1.4%, to ¥94.76 against the Japanese yen.
Officials from the European Central Bank expressed concern for the euro-zone economy, according to Reuters.
European nations could face severe debt problems after implementing large economic stimulus packages, according to Jose Manuel Gonzalez-Paramo, a European Central Bank board member at a conference in Madrid.
ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet also expressed concern for the European economy, saying that without proper regulation, banks in the region risk damaging the euro zone's financial system as they sell off assets to reduce their exposure to debt, according to Reuters.
Investors are also worried about the euro zone's exposure to the economic crises in nearby countries and Eastern Europe, according to Jacob Oubina, currency strategist with Forex.com.
Europe has "massive exposure to emerging markets," said Oubina.
And because the euro-zone is a conglomeration of nations, the ECB may not have enough tools to right the euro-zone economy - if they need to buy bonds to support the region, it's not clear which bonds they should buy, Oubina added.
"They don't have the flexibility that the Fed(eral reserve) does," he said.
Japan: Investors are also worried about trouble with the export-based economy of Japan, according to Oubina.
Last week the Japanese government reported that the nation's gross domestic product, a broad measure of all goods and services produced, fell at an annual rate of 12.7% in the last quarter of 2008.
There was some speculation that investors were buying the yen as a safe-haven bet, but that has started to evaporate, according to Oubina.
With Japan facing a shrinking GDP and a national debt that's been growing since the early 1990s, the Japanese economy "is only going to get worse," said Oubina. "This really limits their ability to bring forth any sort of fiscal stimulus." 
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