Forex Pros – The pound eased off a daily low against the U.S. dollar on Wednesday, following a report showing that the jobless rate in the U.K. fell last month, but the number of people claiming unemployment benefits rose unexpectedly.
GBP/USD rebounded from 1.6236, the daily low, to hit 1.6282 during European early afternoon trade, easing up 0.16%.
Cable was likely to find support at 1.6226, Tuesday’s low and a one-week low and resistance at 1.6425, Monday’s high and a 15-month high.
The Office for National Statistics said the number of people claiming jobless benefit rose by 700 in March after a revised 8,500 fall in February, confounding expectations for a fall of 4,200.
But the overall number of people without a job fell by 17,000 in the three months to February to 2.4 million, taking the jobless rate down to 7.8%, compared with forecasts for a steady reading of 8.0%. It was the first fall in the jobless rate since last September.
The report also said wage growth slowed, with average weekly earnings growth including bonuses easing to 2.0% from 2.3% in the three months to January. Analysts had forecast a rise of 2.6%.
Meanwhile, the pound was slightly lower against the euro, with EUR/GBP easing up 0.06% to hit 0.8911.
Later in the day, the U.S. was to publish government data on retail sales and crude oil inventories, while the Federal Reserve was to publish its Beige Book.
ForexPros.com
