By Cornelius Luca
New York, June 7 (BridgeNews) - Sterling extended its sharp Wednesday losses to hit a fresh 15 1/2-year low of $1.3803 while the euro rose to a 20-day high against the embattled U.K. currency. In additions to fears that a Labor Party landslide victory in the U.K. elections would raise the odds of a 2002 referendum on Britain joining the single currency, the pound was hurt by weak manufacturing data. Both the euro and yen were mixed near recent ranges.
* * * While the euro/dollar remained soft within Wednesday's perimeter, dollar/Swiss franc advanced to a 5 1/2-month high of 1.8039 and dollar/Canada fell to a four-month low of 1.5212.
The domestic agenda is dominated by the state unemployment claims and by speeches from Federal Reserve Governor Edward Gramlich and Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco President Robert Parry.
But all eyes will be on the results of the U.K. elections. The larger the margin of victory for the Labor Party, the further down sterling stands to fall.

Current Previous Change Global Global
NY open NY close low high

USD/JPY 120.13 120.19 -0.06 119.76 120.31
EUR/USD 0.8466 0.8482 -0.0016 0.8455 0.8489
EUR/JPY 101.70 102.12 -0.42 101.45 102.05
GBP/USD 1.3806 1.3925 -0.0119 1.3803 1.3935
USD/CHF 1.8010 1.7925 0.0085 1.7912 1.8039
USD/CAD 1.5212 1.5230 -0.0018 1.5212 1.5248
AUD/USD 0.5166 0.5159 0.0007 0.5135 0.5172
NZD/USD 0.4129 0.4131 -0.0002 0.4106 0.4136
SP.1 1272.00 -1.90 1271.20 1275.90
ND.1 1900.00 -8.00 1897.00 1918.00