Data hurts pound, helps euro

The pound declined Thursday after the Confederation of British Industry said that 17 percent of retailers said in a survey that sales were down in May while only 3 percent said that sales advanced, and on comments from a Bank of England official that the UK economy might not expand either this year or next.

At the same time, the euro gained on new data from the European Commission that showed executive and consumer sentiment on the upswing.

At just before 11 a.m. in New York, the pound traded at 87.33p to the euro while it took $1.5964 to buy a pound and $1.3941 to purchase a euro.

The Japanese yen was also weaker on data showing that retail sales were lower after the trade ministry there reported that retail sales fell 2.9 percent in April from the same time last y ear.

In addition, Japanese investors bought more foreign assets than they sold.

New US data, meanwhile, made it look as if the economy is getting better, making investors more willing to buy higher-yielding currencies, funding the purchases with the lower-yielding yen.

US durable goods orders were reported up 1.9 percent in April and the Labor Department said that there were 623,000 new unemployment claims filed last week in the US, fewer than had been anticipated although total numbers of jobless benefits recipients in the US grew to 6.78 million.

In morning trade in New York, the yen traded at ¥96.73 to the greenback and at ¥134.8529 to the shared currency.

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