Pound gains on mortgage approval data

The pound saw gains on Wednesday on the news that more home mortgages were approved in the UK in September than in August as 1,000 more mortgages were approved last month to a total of 33,000 approvals.

It was the first month of gains in approvals in over a year.

In late morning trade in New York, the pound traded at 79.39p to the euro while it took $1.6323 to buy a pound and the yen dropped to ¥159.1132 in relation to the UK currency.

Meanwhile, the US dollar weakened ahead of a decision, due later in the day, on US interest rates amid wide expectations that the Fed will cut the rate to 1 percent, a decline of half a percentage point.

In addition to the rate speculation that drove the dollar down, the euro was helped by comments from German Chancellor Angela Merkel that a stimulus package for her country will be announced soon.

At just before noon in New York the dollar declined to $1.2927 to the euro while the yen gained on the US currency to ¥97.475 even as the yen weakened to ¥126.0059 to the euro.

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