(RTTNews) - The British currency traded lower against major opponents during New York trading on Wednesday. UK's Q3 GDP data released in European session, today. A report from the UK's Office for National Statistics showed that the economy contracted 0.3% sequentially in the third quarter, revised from a 0.4% fall estimated initially.

This followed a decline of 0.6% between the first and second quarters of 2009. The economy contracted for the sixth straight time in the third quarter of 2009. The statistical office also revised the annual decline for the third quarter to 5.1% from 5.2%.

The Office for National Statistics also showed that UK's seasonally adjusted services output decreased 0.1% in the three months to September compared to the previous three months

The pound ticked down against the euro and the Swiss franc in New York morning trading today. At around 10:30 am ET, the pound dropped to 1.6698 against the franc and 0.9045 versus the euro form previous session's multi-day highs of 1.6818 and 0.8980, respectively.
The sterling plunged further against its Japanese counterpart in today's New York morning deals and slipped to a fresh multi-week low of 145.84 by about 9:50 am ET. The pound-yen pair closed yesterday's New York session at 146.83.

Against the US dollar, the pound climbed to a 6-day high of 1.6748 at about 6:35 am ET, today. Thereafter, the pair reversed its direction and currently trading near 1.6676. At yesterday's close, the pound-greenback pair was quoted at 1.6591.

According to a report released by the U.S. Commerce Department today, the new home sales rose 6.2 percent to an annual rate of 430,000 in October from the revised September rate of 405,000. Economists had expected sales to edge up to 404,000 from the 402,000 originally reported for the previous month.

The U.S. Labor Department revealed that initial jobless claims, a key measure of layoffs, dropped 35,000 last week to a level of 466,000. This was the first reading below 500,000 this early January. Continuing claims fell 190,000 to a level of 5.423 million, the 10th consecutive week of declines.

by RTT Staff Writer

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