BLBG:Pound Approaches Month Low Versus Dollar Before House-Price Data
The pound weakened for a third day against the dollar, approaching the lowest level in a month, before a report economists said will show U.K. house prices were unchanged last month.
Sterling was little changed against the euro. A Halifax gauge of home values was unchanged in December after rising 1 percent a month earlier, according to the median estimate of 10 analysts in a Bloomberg News survey. The U.K. Debt Management Office is scheduled to auction 1.5 billion pounds ($2.4 billion) of gilts maturing in 2030 tomorrow.
The pound slid 0.1 percent to $1.6052 at 7:41 a.m. London time. It dropped to $1.6010 on Jan. 4, the lowest since Dec. 7. Sterling traded at 81.31 pence per euro.
The pound weakened 0.3 percent in the last six months, according to Bloomberg Correlation-Weighted Indexes, which track 10 developed-market currencies. The euro gained 2.5 percent and the dollar fell 4.2 percent.
U.K. gilts handed investors a loss of 2.2 percent this month through Jan. 4, according to indexes compiled by Bloomberg and the European Federation of Financial Analysts Societies. German bonds dropped 1.4 percent and Treasuries fell 0.7 percent.
To contact the reporter on this story: Lucy Meakin in London at lmeakin1@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Paul Dobson at pdobson2@bloomberg.net.