The pound fell and the yen advanced on speculation spreading credit market losses at banks will result in slower economic growth and discourage policy makers from raising interest rates.

Sterling dropped the most in more than three weeks versus the dollar after Bradford & Bingley Plc, the U.K.'s biggest mortgage lender to landlords, said it will sell shares at a 33 percent discount. The yen rose against all of the major currencies as a decline in European and U.S. stocks eroded demand for higher-yielding assets funded in Japan.
The pound weakened after Bradford & Bingley Chief Executive Officer Stephen Crawshaw quit yesterday, citing health reasons. TPG Inc., a leveraged buyout firm, is in talks to buy a 20 percent stake in the mortgage lender. It plans to raise an additional 250 million pounds ($490 million) from shareholders.
The U.S. currency rose earlier against the euro as crude oil fell by as much as 1.7 percent to $125.22 a barrel, easing concern high commodity prices will reduce U.S. consumer spending. Crude reached a record high of $135.09 on May 22.

EUR/USD: fell from $1.5560 to $1.5486. Later rate showed a high on $1.5588.
GBP/USD: slumped from $1.9770 to a low at $1.9600, rebounding later till $1.9670.
USD/JPY: sunk fromY105.50 to a low at Y104.08 with a close level on Y104.50.

Eurozone data sees the first details of Q1 GDP data as well as April PPIat 0900GMT. The GDP should be 0.7% q/q, 2.2% y/y with industrial PPI at0.8% m/m, 6.1% y/y.

In the US today at 1300GMT, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke appears on a panel of central bankers at the International Monetary Conference, in Barcelona, with ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet, Bank of Japan Governor Masaaki Shirakawa and Bank of Spain Governor Miguel Fernandez Ordonez.

closing
Nikkei +101.60 +0.71% 14,440.14
FTSE -45.90 -0.76% 6,007.60
DAX -88.02 -1.24% 7,008.77
CAC -79.07 -1.58% 4,935.21
Dow -134.50 -1.06% 12,503.82
NASDAQ -31.13 -1.23% 2,491.53
S&P -14.71 -1.05% 1,385.67
10yr Note -0.8300 -0.205% 3.963%
NYMEX Crude Oil +0.90 +0.71% 128.25
Gold +5.40 +0.61% 896.90

Asian stocks gained for the third day on expectations demand for row materials will support prices.
Mizuho, Japan's second-largest publicly traded bank by market value, surged 6.7 percent to 591,000 yen, the highest since Dec. 12.
Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc., the largest, rose 4.7 percent to 1,129 yen. The 85-member Topix Banks Index climbed 3.9 percent to its highest since Dec. 13.
Sony, the world's No. 2 consumer-electronics maker, rose 4.6 percent to 5,520 yen, its highest close since Jan. 18. The stock was raised to ``buy'' from ``neutral'' at Goldman Sachs, citing the weakness in the yen and sustained demand in North America.

European stocks fell for the first time in four days as Bradford & Bingley Plc said it will raise capital, reviving concern credit losses are spreading.
Bradford & Bingley plummeted 21.25% after the lender slashed the price of its rights offering and said it will sell a 23 percent stake to TPG Inc. for 179 million pounds ($353 million).
The company had a pretax loss of 8 million pounds, including one-time items, in the first four months of the year, and Chief Executive Officer Stephen Crawshaw resigned for health reasons.
HBOS sank 10%. Alliance & Leicester Plc decreased 5.2%. Air France, Europe's largest airline, lost 3.5%. Deutsche Lufthansa AG, the region's second-biggest carrier, slipped 2.5%.
Michelin & Cie. retreated 4.9% after Credit Suisse Group cut its share-price estimate on the world's second-largest tiremaker by 19% and reiterated its ``underperform'' recommendation.Credit Suisse also lowered its price target on Continental AG shares by 2 percent to 93 euros and removed the stock from its ``focus list.'' The shares fell 4.6%. Roche, the world's biggest maker of cancer medicines, rose 4.6% after clinical data showed its Avastin tumor drug helped patients live longer.
Novartis AG climbed 2.3%. Switzerland's second-largest drugmaker said its experimental cancer treatment RAD001 made the Femara medicine more effective in breast-cancer patients.
Merck KGaA fell 2.8 percent to 87.79 euros after new data on the Erbitux cancer drug cast doubt it can overtake Roche's Avastin as the medicine of choice for bowel and lung tumors.

US stocks closed Monday lower on new worries about the financial sector after S&P cut its debt rating on a number of banks, and Wachovia and Washington Mutual announced management shakeups. The broad stock declines accelerated in the afternoon after S&P said it was cutting its debt rating on Merrill Lynch, Lehman Brothers and Morgan Stanley to "negative" from "stable" and cut its long-term outlook on JP Morgan Chase and Bank of America. The changes followed S&P's conclusion of its review of the securities industry.

Best Buy The electronics retailer was unveiling a program Monday that would allow customers to bring in old TV sets and other gadgets so that they can be properly disposed, and not poison the nation's landfills.

ImClone The biotech's price edged up 1% in pre-market trading, after the New York company unveiled study results on Sunday showing that its drug Erbitux extended survival in lung cancer patients by one month.
Both Wachovia and Washington Mutual announced executive management changes amid the ongoing fallout from the credit market crisis.