Forexpros – The pound pushed lower against the U.S. dollar on Tuesday, as investors remained focused on upcoming policy decisions by the Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank this week.
GBP/USD hit 1.5626 during U.S. morning trade, the pair’s lowest since July 26; the pair subsequently consolidated at 1.5641, shedding 0.44%.
Cable was likely to find support at 1.5552, the low of July 17 and resistance at 1.5749, Monday’s high.
Expectations have been building that the ECB will announce bold measures to tackle the long running debt crisis after central bank head Mario Draghi pledged last week to do whatever is necessary to preserve the euro.
But investors remained wary amid concerns that an inadequate policy response by the ECB could send markets lower.
Germany is opposed to granting a banking license to the bloc’s bailout fund and to the resumption of the ECB’s bond buying program.
The pound remained under pressure after data last week showing a steeper than expected contraction in U.K. economic growth in the second quarter.
The Bank of England was to hold its monthly rate setting meeting on Thursday, but was not widely expected to announce any change to current monetary policy.
Market participants were also eyeing the outcome of the Fed’s policy setting meeting on Wednesday, amid speculation over whether the U.S. central bank will indicate if further quantitative easing measures are imminent.
In the U.S., a report showed earlier that the Chicago purchasing managers’ index rose to 53.7 in July, from a reading of 52.9 the previous month and defying expectations for a decline to 52.5.
Elsewhere, the Conference Board said that its index of U.S. consumer confidence rose to 65.9 in July, from 62.7 in the preceding month, beating expectations for a reading of 61.5.
A separate report showed that U.S. personal spending was flat in June, in line with expectations, while personal income rose 0.5%, slightly better than expectations for a 0.4% increase.
Sterling was also lower against the euro with EUR/GBP climbing 0.76%, to hit 0.7863.
Also Tuesday, official data showed that the rate of consumer price inflation in the euro zone remained steady at 2.4% in July.
A separate report showed that the unemployment rate in the bloc rose to 11.2%, a new record high in July.
Germany’s unemployment rate remained steady at 6.8% in July, but Italy’s unemployment rate rose to 10.8% in June, the highest level since quarterly records began in 1999.
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