Yen weaker; pound sees gains

The Japanese yen was weaker Tuesday as equities markets recovered from Monday’s big declines and ahead of the Bank of Japan’s quarterly Tankan survey, which is expected to say that Japanese business confidence was significantly lower in the first quarter of 2009 than it was in the last quarter of 2008.

At just after 11 a.m. in New York, the yen traded at ¥98.805 to the US dollar while it was at ¥131.0585 to the euro, at ¥68.5622 to the Australian dollar and at ¥56.4429 to the New Zealand dollar.

The pound gained on the greenback and took back some of its declines to the euro after a report from market researcher GfK NOP showed that consumer confidence rose from minus 35 in February to minus 30 in March so that in late morning trade in New York, the pound traded at 92.52p to the euro while it cost $1.4337 to buy a pound.

The dollar also lost ground to the Chilean peso, which was helped by a government sale of $3 billion worth of the currency.

The South American nation’s currency traded at 582.65 pesos to the US dollar and has gained 9.8 percent on the greenback this quarter.

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