Sterling fell across the board, hitting a one-week low against the dollar as a broad rise in the US currency followed a stronger-than-expected reading of US non-farm payrolls.

Sterling

The pound continued on the back foot, nearing one-week lows against its major rivals. It continued to struggle after the Bank of England surprised markets by extending quantitative easing measures to boost the nation's economy. Poor first-quarter earnings results at the part-nationalised Royal Bank of Scotland also stung the pound. The Bank of England held interest rates at the record low of 0.5 per cent.

US Dollar

The dollar advanced to a seven-week high against the yen and gained versus the euro for the first time in almost a month after a government report showed that the US economy lost fewer jobs than expected in July. US employers shed 247,000 jobs in July, the least in any month since last August, taking the unemployment rate down to 9.4 per cent from June's 9.5 per cent.

Euro

The single currency was little changed by mixed data that showed a much larger than expected surge in German exports. However, a separate survey showed an unexpected tumble in German industrial production in June. The euro also showed little reaction to the announcement that the European Central Bank would hold its benchmark rate steady at one per cent and forecast that the eurozone economy would return to growth in 2010.

Japanese Yen

The yen dropped against all of its major counterparts and fell to the lowest level against the euro since June as the US Labour Department's payroll report encouraged Japanese investors to buy higher-yielding assets overseas. Despite better than expected figures, manufacturers remain downbeat as global and domestic demand remains limited in the short to mid-term.