The pound fell and the yen advanced on speculation spreading credit
market losses at banks will result in slower economic growth and
discourage policy makers from raising interest rates.
Sterling
dropped the most in more than three weeks versus the dollar after
Bradford & Bingley Plc, the U.K.'s biggest mortgage lender to
landlords, said it will sell shares at a 33 percent discount. The yen
rose against all of the major currencies as a decline in European and
U.S. stocks eroded demand for higher-yielding assets funded in Japan.
The pound weakened after Bradford & Bingley Chief Executive Officer
Stephen Crawshaw quit yesterday, citing health reasons. TPG Inc., a
leveraged buyout firm, is in talks to buy a 20 percent stake in the
mortgage lender. It plans to raise an additional 250 million pounds
($490 million) from shareholders.
The U.S. currency rose earlier against the euro as crude oil fell by as
much as 1.7 percent to $125.22 a barrel, easing concern high commodity
prices will reduce U.S. consumer spending. Crude reached a record high
of $135.09 on May 22.
Eurozone data sees the first details of Q1 GDP data as well as April
PPIat 0900GMT. The GDP should be 0.7% q/q, 2.2% y/y with industrial PPI
at0.8% m/m, 6.1% y/y.
In
the US today at 1300GMT, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke appears on a panel
of central bankers at the International Monetary Conference, in
Barcelona, with ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet, Bank of Japan
Governor Masaaki Shirakawa and Bank of Spain Governor Miguel Fernandez
Ordonez.