Forexpros – The pound erased gains against the U.S. dollar on Thursday, as expectations for concrete measures to counter the debt crisis in the euro zone faded ahead of the start of a two-day European Union summit.
GBP/USD retreated from 1.5624, the session high, to hit 1.5542 during European morning trade, shedding 0.17%.
Cable was likely to find support at 1.5471, the low of June 14 and resistance at 1.5641, Wednesday’s high.
Market sentiment soured after a German government official indicated that the EU summit would not result in any detailed decisions and warned against high expectations among investors ahead of the outcome.
Earlier in the week, German Chancellor Angel Merkel reiterated her opposition to the idea of joint euro zone bonds, while EU Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn said Wednesday that the summit would focus on short-term measures to stabilize markets and ease pressure on at-risk countries.
Meanwhile, the yield on Spanish 10-year bonds ticked up to 7%, the level that prompted Greece, Ireland and Portugal to seek international bailouts.
In the U.K., a report by mortgage lender Nationwide said that house prices fell 0.6% in June, following an increase of 0.2% the previous month, leaving prices 1.5% lower year-over-year, the weakest reading for annual growth since August 2009.
Sterling was higher against the euro, with EUR/GBP shedding 0.22% to hit 0.7990.
Later Thursday, the U.K. was to release official data on the country’s current account and revised data on first quarter gross domestic product. Elsewhere, the U.S. was to release government data on initial jobless claims, followed by revised data on first quarter economic growth.
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