Pound weaker on home sales, manufacturing reports

Pound weaker on home sales, manufacturing reports

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The pound weakened against most currencies Tuesday on more bad economic news for the UK.

The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors reported that the average number of transactions per estate agent fell to 9.5 in the three months ending in February, the worst in the thirty years since records have been kept.

In addition, a separate report showed that UK manufacturing declined by 2.9 percent in January from December and was down 6.4 percent in the quarter ending in January, the biggest quarterly decline since 1968.

The UK currency traded at 92.04p to the euro in late morning trade in New York, where it was also down versus the Australian dollar which traded at A$2.1426 to the pound.

The pound gained on the US dollar, however, which traded at $1.3858 to the pound at nearly noon in New York.

The dollar was weaker as equities markets advanced amid reports that a memo from the CEO of Citigroup (NYSE: C) claimed that the bank is having its best quarter since 2007, while the euro gained on the yen after an official of the European Central Bank said that interest rates in the Eurozone should not fall below 1 percent.

The dollar traded at $1.2755 to the euro while the yen dropped to ¥125.4911 to the euro and traded at ¥98.385 to the greenback.

The South African rand gained to $10.2975 to the US dollar as copper prices saw gains.