LONDON (AFP) - The dollar nudged lower versus the euro and yen on Wednesday in muted trade, dealers said one day after the greenback had rallied on data showing stronger-than-expected US home sales. In London morning deals, the single currency rose to 1.4256 dollars from 1.4254 in New York late on Tuesday. Against the Japanese currency, the dollar dipped to 91.81 yen from 91.82 yen on Tuesday. The dollar had rallied Tuesday on data showing stronger-than-expected US home sales in November while the euro was punished by a new downgrade of Greeces credit rating, analysts said. The European single currency fell to its lowest level since September 4 against the greenback, to 1.4218 dollars, before settling at 1.4254 dollars. Sales of US existing homes surged 7.4 percent in November to the highest level since February 2007, indicating recovery in a sector at the epicenter of the global economic crisis. The data has bred increasing confidence that the recovery is starting to gain traction in the US economy, CMC Markets foreign exchange analyst Michael Hewson said on Wednesday. The recent better data is supporting the belief that the US central bank may start to move rates higher, sooner rather than later, and any increase, above expectations, in new US home sales (data published Wednesday), will continue to support that belief, Hewson added. Elsewhere, the British pound fell as the Bank of England said its policymakers had recently voted 9-0 in favour of freezing its key lending rate at a record low level of 0.5 percent amid Britains longest recession. The BoEs Monetary Policy Committee was also unanimous in deciding to continue pumping out up to 200 billion pounds (224 billion euros, 319 billion dollars) of new money, minutes of their last meeting showed. The Bank of England has sought to combat recession with a record-low interest rate of 0.5 percent and a radical policy of quantitative easing (QE) pumping new cash into the economy to help kick-start lending. Overall, it seems that UK rates will remains low for an extended period and on balance this can be seen as a negative for sterling, said Jane Foley, an analyst at online trading firm Forex.com. In London, the euro was changing hands at 1.4256 dollars against 1.4254 dollars late on Tuesday, 130.89 yen (130.87), 0.8939 pounds (0.8925) and 1.4932 Swiss francs (1.4945). The dollar stood at 91.81 yen (91.82) and 1.0474 Swiss francs (1.0483). The pound was at 1.5944 dollars (1.5967). On the London Bullion Market, the price of gold increased to 1,084.15 dollars an ounce from 1,084 dollars late on Tuesday.