Forex Pros – The pound pared gains against the U.S. dollar on Thursday, easing off a 17-month high ahead of the release of advance data on first quarter U.S. gross domestic product and a report on initial jobless claims.
GBP/USD retreated from 1.6745, the pair’s highest since November 19, 2009, to hit 1.6644 during European early afternoon trade, up 0.11% on the day.
Cable was likely to find support at 1.6434, Wednesday’s low and resistance at 1.6743, the days high.
Earlier in the day, a report showed that consumer confidence in the U.K. unexpectedly tumbled to its lowest level since February 2009 in April.
The GfK NOP consumer confidence index fell to -31 in April from -28 in March, defying expectations for an unchanged reading.
GfK director Nick Moon said the figures were “bad news for the government and bad news for the economy” after government data on Wednesday showed the economy had stagnated for the last six months.
Meanwhile, the pound was slightly lower against the euro, with EUR/GBP easing up 0.05% to hit 0.8896.
On Wednesday, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said that the central bank, which left interest rates unchanged, “will complete” its USD600 billion bond-buying program by the end of June but indicated that the Fed was in no rush to tighten monetary policy with the jobs market still in a “very, very deep hole.”
ForexPros.com
