Forex Pros – The pound was down against the U.S. dollar on Thursday, extending the previous day’s sharp decline after the minutes of this month’s Bank of England policy meeting showed policymakers believed the growth outlook had weakened and some believed more stimulus may be needed.
GBP/USD hit 1.6018 during early European trade, the pair’s lowest since April 1; the pair subsequently consolidated at 1.6027, shedding 0.27%.
Cable was likely to find support at 1.5936, the low of March 28 and resistance at 1.6208, the high of May 24.
The BoE minutes showed a 7-2 vote to keep rates on hold at 0.5% at the bank’s June policy meeting.
Monetary policy committee member Adam Posen maintained his vote for an immediate extra GBP 50 billion of quantitative easing.
The minutes said some members judged that more QE may be necessary if downside risks to medium-term inflation materialized.
In contrast, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke confirmed Wednesday that the bank was winding up its monetary easing program at the end of this month and said further easing was unlikely.
Meanwhile, the pound was up against the euro, with EUR/GBP shedding 0.33% to hit 0.8901.
Later Thursday, the U.K. was to publish industry data on mortgage approvals, while the U.S. was to publish government data on initial jobless claims, as well as official data on new home sales.
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