Pound weaker versus USD, yen

Story link: Pound weaker versus USD, yen

The pound weakened versus the US dollar and the yen Monday after the Confederation of British Industry predicted that the UK economy will not return to growth until next year and said that the Bank of England might need to print more money.

In addition, the pound was hurt by declines in equities markets.

At just before 10:30 a.m. in New York, the pound traded higher versus the euro at 84.66p to the shared currency, but the US dollar had gained on the pound to $1.6351 to the UK currency while at the same time the Japanese yen traded at ¥160.0883 to the pound.

The greenback, meanwhile, gained on the euro and the Swiss franc after Russia’s finance minister said his country still has confidence in the US currency and that it should remain the globe’s main reserve currency for now.

But the dollar declined in relation to the yen after the New York Federal Reserve’s general economic index, which indicates factory activity, fell to minus 9.41 in June from minus 4.55 in May as manufacturing activity contracted.

Also hurting the dollar versus the Japanese currency was new data showing that foreign investors bought $11.2 billion more in long-term US equities, notes and bonds than they sold in April.

The greenback traded at $1.3843 to the euro in morning trade in New York while the Swiss franc dropped to SFr1.0905 to the US dollar.

The yen gained versus both the dollar and the euro, to ¥97.91 and ¥135.5343 to the shared currency.