The British currency extended its European session downtrend against major opponents during New York morning trading on Thursday. The pound dropped to new multi-week lows against the euro and the Swiss franc in the same period.
A report from the Office for National Statistics showed today that U.K.’s business investment unexpectedly dropped 5.8% to GBP 27.12 billion in the fourth quarter from GBP 28.78 billion in the third quarter. Consensus forecast was for 0.1% increase.
Extending previous session downtrend, the pound declined further against the euro and the Swiss franc in New York morning deals today. As of now, the pound is trading near fresh multi-week lows of 1.6505 against the franc and 0.8868 versus the euro, compared to yesterday’s closing values of 1.6663 and 0.8789, respectively.
Against the Japanese yen, the sterling edged down in today’s morning deals and currently trading near a new multi-month low of 135.65. The pound-yen pair closed Wednesday’s New York session at 138.93.
The British currency also plunged against its US counterpart in mid-morning session and presently trading near a fresh multi-month low of 1.5240 from yesterday’s close of 1.5410.
According to a report released by the U.S. Commerce Department today, the durable goods orders increased by 3.0 percent in January following an upwardly revised 1.9 percent increase in December. Economists had expected orders to increase by 1.5 percent compared to the 1.0 percent growth originally reported for the previous month.
A reports released by the U.S. Labor Department showed that initial jobless claims rose to 496,000 from the previous week’s revised figure of 474,000. Economists had been expecting jobless claims to slip to 460,000 from the 473,000 originally reported for the previous week.
