Swiss currency weakens on central bank actions

The Swiss franc was weaker Thursday after the Swiss National Bank intervened to weaken the currency by cutting the interest rate there to 0.25 percent and by buying foreign currencies, the Swiss central bank also said it will begin purchasing corporate bonds.

At nearly noon in New York, the Swiss franc traded at SFr1.5226 to the euro and at SFr1.1905 to the greenback.

Meanwhile, the pound weakened as some equities markets saw declines and after the Bank of England began buying UK government bonds in a program of quantitative easing.

Yields on UK bonds have dropped since the program was disclosed last week, after the Bank cut UK interest rates.

In late morning trade in New York, the pound traded at 92.52p to the euro while it took $1.3824 to buy a pound and the pound was worth ¥135.1742.

The yen saw declines versus the euro early after a report that Japan’s gross domestic product fell by an annualized 12.1 percent in the last quarter, its fastest decline in 35 years.

However, the Japanese currency later gained back some of its losses as the Japanese currency trading at ¥125.0607 to the euro and at ¥97.785 to the US dollar.

The US currency traded at $1.2789 to the euro after the US Commerce Department reported that US retail sales fell in February, but only by 0.1 percent, less of a decline than expected.

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