NEW YORK, May 26: The dollar weakened against the euro on Friday amid renewed concerns about US economic strength after an industry survey showed new home sales fell to their lowest levels in almost four years.
At 2100 GMT, the euro was changing hands at $1.3438, up from 1.3428 dollars late on Thursday in New York. At one point in earlier trading, however, the European single currency had fallen as low as $1.3409 marking its lowest level against the dollar in six weeks.
The dollar strengthened against the Japanese yen, rising to 121.74 yen from 121.37 late on Thursday.
Traders said the dollar had fallen against the euro in the wake of an industry report which showed US home sales fell to their lowest level in almost four years last month.
The National Association of Realtors said in a monthly report that existing home sales dropped 2.6 per cent to an annualized pace of 5.99 million in April, marking the second straight monthly decline in sales. Sales are now at their lowest ebb since June 2003.
The number of homes for sale across the United States continued to mount last month, rising over 10 per cent from March to a record inventory of 4.20 million properties.
The report dashed hopes that the housing market could be set for a rebound.
Some market analysts said the dollar's decline was not too bad considering the housing data.
Another day, another dollar as the greenback was able to brush off much worse than expected housing data to remain within respectable trading distance against major counterparts ahead of the holiday weekend, Forex Capital Markets analysts Richard Lee and Terri Belkas said in a note to investors.
In the wake of overnight volatility and ahead of the long weekend, with many traders already taking today off, dealers are looking to square up quickly into the London close and before US midday hoping for better trading conditions next week, said Rhonda Staskow at Thomson's IFR Markets.
The dollar also came under pressure against the euro on interest rate differentials, as eurozone bonds have underperformed US Treasuries, traders said.
In Britain the pound found support following a small upward revision in economic growth figures.---AFP
