Yen, USD lower as Aussie sees gains

Story link: Yen, USD lower as Aussie sees gains

The US dollar and the Japanese yen both declined Tuesday on new efforts by governments to help ailing economies.

The Australian dollar, meanwhile, saw gains on spending plans that will give money to low-income earners and to families there, while the government will also increase spending on infrastructure development.

On the other hand, the yen declined after the Bank of Japan announced that it will buy ¥1 trillion worth of shares owned by financial institutions.

In late morning trade in New York the yen traded at 89.195 to the US dollar while it stood at ¥115.7174 to the euro and was down to ¥57.4821 to the Australian dollar.

At the same time, the greenback traded lower at $1.2974 to the euro and had fallen to 64.45 cents US to the Aussie.

The pound lost ground to the euro and the US currency on a contraction in the construction sector and on the expectation that the Bank of England will cut interest rates to 1 percent later in the week, while the UK currency was also hurt by the likelihood that new reports due soon will show that house prices and consumer confidence are both down in the UK again.

At late morning in New York the pound traded at 90.36p to the euro while it cost $1.4358 to buy a pound.