Euro weakens versus USD, yen

Story link: Euro weakens versus USD, yen

The euro declined in relation to the US dollar and the yen on Thursday on a decline in retail sales in Europe, on more subprime writedowns, and on bets that the European Central Bank will cut interest rates sometime this year.

Retail sales were 0.5 percent lower in Europe in February, with German sales dropping 1.6 percent.

The greenback was helped by a report from the Institute for Supply Management which showed that the US service sector contracted less than had been anticipated in March, but gains for the dollar were limited by a Labor Department report that showed first-time jobless claims up 38,000 last week to 407,000, the highest they’ve been since just after Hurricane Katrina put so many people out of work in September 2005.

At around 11:30 a.m. in New York, the dollar traded at $1.5672 to the euro while the yen was at ¥160.004 to the shared currency after trading at ¥159.68 earlier.

The Japanese currency traded at ¥102.0900 to the dollar.

The pound was weaker in relation to the greenback on new data showing that growth in the UK service sector slowed in March.

In late morning trade in New York, the pound traded at 50.07p to the dollar while at the same time it was at 78.48p to the euro.