Pound gains on higher retail sales

Story link: Pound gains on higher retail sales

The pound strengthened versus all major currencies on Thursday on a report from the Office of National Statistics which showed that UK retail sales grew in January by the most in nearly a year.

Sales were 0.8 percent higher in January after a decline of 0.2 percent in December, with food sales growing by 0.7 percent.

The gains are seen as making another interest rate cut soon less likely.

In late morning trade in New York the pound traded at 75.45p to the euro, at 50.52p to the Canadian dollar and at 46.89p to the Australian dollar, while it cost $1.9600 or ¥211.0475 to buy a pound.

The US dollar also weakened against the euro and the yen after the Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank’s general economic index fell to -24 in February, indicating that manufacturing in the region has contracted further since January’s reading of -20.9, adding to the case for another interest rate cut in the US soon.

At shortly after 11:30 a.m. in New York, the dollar traded at $1.4789 to the euro while it took ¥107.6800 to buy a dollar.

The euro gained on the yen, to trade at ¥159.2426 to the euro.