Pound weaker on house prices

The pound weakened Monday after Rightmove Plc (LSE: RMV) issued a report showing that the average price of a house in the UK dropped 2.2 percent in August.

Mid-morning trade in New York found the pound trading at 86.26p to the euro while it took $1.6305 to buy a pound and the yen traded at ¥154.1741 to the UK currency.

The US dollar and the yen, on the other hand, were both stronger Monday as investors sought less risky investments after new data showed that Japan’s gross domestic product did not grow as much as had been hoped in the second quarter.

Meanwhile, the greenback was helped by news that the New York Federal Reserve’s general economic index was at 12.08 in August, up from minus 0.55 in July and its highest reading since November 2007, but another bank failure, this time in Alabama, coming after four other bank closures last week, hurt the dollar’s value.

At around 10:30 a.m. in New York, the yen traded at ¥132.9887 to the euro and at ¥94.555 to the US dollar, while the dollar traded at $1.4065 to the euro.

The Canadian dollar weakened on lower oil prices and declines in equities markets, but regained some strength on the news about manufacturing in the New York region to trade at C$1.1093 to the greenback at just past 10:30 a.m. in New York.

Story link: Pound weaker on house prices