Dollar weaker on credit comments by Fed official

Dollar weaker on credit comments by Fed official

Story link: Dollar weaker on credit comments by Fed official

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The US dollar weakened in relation to the euro and the yen Monday after comments from the president of the Minneapolis Fed in which he said that US credit problems are likely to get worse, and on speculation that house prices were down again when a new report on May’s numbers is released tomorrow.

A private report showing July payrolls down by 75,000 jobs ahead of the official Labor Department report, due Friday, also hurt the greenback.

In late morning trade in New York, the dollar traded at $1.5750 to the euro while it took ¥107.7800 to buy a dollar.

The pound dropped versus the euro and the greenback on more declines in house prices in England in Wales, where July prices were down 1.2 percent from June and fell 4.4 percent from July 2007.

The UK currency was also lower ahead of the Bank of England’s latest mortgage approval numbers, due out tomorrow and expected to have declined.

It took $1.9936 to buy a pound before noon in New York, while the pound traded at 79p to the euro.

The South African rand, meanwhile, gained on the US dollar on speculation that the South African Reserve Bank will raise interest rates yet again to try to deal with inflation that could be reported as high as 11.3 percent in June in a report due later this week.

The rand traded at R7.5145 to the dollar and at R11.845 to the euro at late morning in New York.