Pound weaker on housing news

The pound weakened on Tuesday as separate reports showed that over one-fifth of home buyers with bad credit fell behind on their mortgage payments in the first quarter and that UK home prices fell for the eighth month in a row in May.

At nearly noon in New York, it took $1.9756 to buy a pound while the UK currency traded at 79.59 to the euro.

The yen declined versus several major currencies as a rise in US equities sent investors in search of more risky investments and as the US dollar was helped by a Commerce Department report that said US home sales were up 3.3 percent in April, trumping a separate report showing that home prices dropped 14.1 percent in the US in the first quarter.

In late morning trade in New York, the yen was at ¥104.0200 to the dollar and at ¥163.5663 to the euro, while it traded at ¥99.8227 to the Australian dollar and at ¥82.123 to the New Zealand dollar.

The Australian and New Zealand dollars also gained on the greenback, with an Australian dollar worth 95.96 cents US and the New Zealand dollar worth 78.94 cents US, as the kiwi especially was helped by a gain in business confidence.

The euro was hurt by weak consumer confidence in Germany and poor business confidence in France, so that it took $1.5725 to buy a euro.

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