USD gains but GDP contracts

Story link: USD gains but GDP contracts

The US dollar saw gains Friday but investors worried that the recession is only deepening after the Commerce Department reported that the US gross domestic product contracted at an annualized 6.2 percent in the fourth quarter of 2008, much more than anticipated and the fastest decline since 1982, when the US economy was also in recession.

Meanwhile, the pound weakened on new survey results in two separate reports from market research company GfK NOP.

Consumer confidence remained weak in the UK in February at minus 35, near a 30-year low, while it was estimated that by the end of the year 40 percent of UK mortgage holders could see their loans higher than the value of their homes.

At just past 11 a.m. in New York the pound traded at 89.16p to the euro while it took $1.4136 to buy a pound and the dollar traded at $1.2646 to the euro.

The yen was higher versus the greenback, trading at ¥97.605 to the dollar while it was at ¥124.0216 to the euro and at ¥139.0979 to the pound.