Pound weakens on data

The pound was weaker versus the US dollar, the euro, and the Canadian dollar on bad news concerning consumer sentiment and factory output after the Nationwide Building Society said that its consumer sentiment index dropped to 70 in April and the Office of National Statistics said that factory output in the UK was down 0.5 percent in March.

In late morning trade in New York, it took $1.9533 or C$1.9579 to buy a pound while the British currency traded at 78.84p to the euro.

The US dollar strengthened in relation euro and the yen Wednesday after the Labor Department reported that non-farm worker productivity was up in the first quarter and on comments from the president of the Kansas City Federal Reserve, who said that the Fed might have to raise interest rates soon to fight inflation.

At the same time, the euro was hurt by decline in retail sales in the Eurozone in March and new data out of Germany which showed manufacturer orders down in March.

At just past 11 a.m. in New York, the dollar traded at $1.5400 to the euro while it took ¥105.3300 to buy a dollar and ¥162.2081 to buy a euro.

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