Forexpros – The pound remained unchanged against the U.S. dollar in thin year-end trade on Wednesday, as markets eyed a series of Italian bond auctions amid ongoing concerns over the debt crisis in the euro zone.
GBP/USD hit 1.5675 during European morning trade, the daily high; the pair subsequently consolidated at 1.5672, easing up 0.01%.
Cable was likely to find support at 1.5595, Tuesday’s low and resistance at 1.5728, the high of December 22.
While markets in the U.K. returned after an extended holiday break, most investors were already away on year-end leave, resulting in low trading volumes and subdued trade.
Italy was scheduled to sell EUR9 billion euros of 179-day bills and EUR2.5 billion euros of zero-coupon 2013 securities later Wednesday.
Investors were cautious ahead of the auctions as the yield on Italy’s ten-year bonds remained close to the 7% threshold, a level widely considered unsustainable and above which other euro zone governments had been forced to seek bailouts.
Meanwhile, sterling was moderately higher against the euro with EUR/GBP inching down 0.04%, to hit 0.8336.
Italy was also scheduled to auction EUR8.5 billion euros of debt due in 2014, 2018, 2021 and 2022 on Thursday.
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