More Signs of Slowdown Appear: Jobless Claims Rise, Home Sales Fall, Prompting Talk of Rate Cut
Pg- D2________________________________________________________________________________________________</br></br>Fresh evidence of sluggish U.S. economic growth yesterday added to expectations that the Federal Reserve will cut short-term interest rates this summer, sending the dollarÛªs value, long-term interest rates and stock prices lower.</br></br>Investors were reacting to the governmentÛªs report that the number of people filing initial claims for unemployment benefits went up much more than expected last week and a trade groupÛªs report that sales of existing homes went down much more than expected last month.</br></br>The biggest impact was on the dollar; some of the currencyÛªs recent rebound against the Japanese yen and German mark was wiped out In late New York trading, it took 84.81 yen to buy a dollar, down sharply from 87.23 yen late Wednesday. And it took 1.3980 marks to buy a dollar, down from 1.4395 late WednesdayÛÓthe largest one-day decline since September 1992.</br></br>ÐÊThe continued weak economic data finally seems to have taken its toll on the dollar after it had remained stable for some time now," Stone & McCarthy Research Associates, a financial markets research firm, told its clients.