Pound, yen weaker; dollar sees gains

The pound weakened Friday as at least one more government official, the Defence Minister, resigned and there were continued calls for Prime Minister Gordon Brown to follow suit.

Instead, Mr. Brown made alterations to his cabinet by moving his Health Secretary to the Home Office.

At nearly 11 a.m. in New York, the pound traded at 87.44p to the euro while it took $1.6021 to buy a pound.

Meanwhile, the US dollar strengthened versus the yen and the euro after the Labor Department said that fewer US jobs were lost last month than had been expected, with 345,000 jobs were lost in the month, fewer than expected.

The decline in job losses did not help the US unemployment rate, which rose to 9.4 percent in May as more people looked for work.

In late morning trade, the greenback traded at $1.4008 to the euro while it took ¥97.945 to buy a dollar and it cost ¥137.1971 to buy a euro.

The yen also weakened in relation to the Australia and New Zealand dollars on the possibility that there would be more demand for the higher-yielding Aussie and kiwi at the expense of the Japanese currency.

The yen traded at ¥79.95 to the Australian currency while at the same time it was at ¥62.22 to the New Zealand dollar.

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