Forex Pros – The pound fell to a one-week low against the U.S. dollar on Thursday, as weaker-than-expected U.K. manufacturing data reinforced expectations that the Bank of England will not raise interest rates until next year.
GBP/USD hit 1.6306 during early European trade, the pair’s lowest since May 26; the pair subsequently consolidated at 1.6315, slipping 0.11%.
Cable was likely to find support at 1.6130, the low of May 25 and resistance at 1.6495, Wednesday’s high.
The pound weakened broadly after data on Wednesday showed that manufacturing activity in the U.K. grew at its slowest pace in 20 months in May.
Meanwhile, the BoE said U.K. mortgage approvals unexpectedly fell to their lowest level since December, underlining expectations that the central bank would hold off on raising rates while the economy struggles to recover.
The pound was also lower against the euro, with EUR/GBP climbing 0.51% to hit 0.8817.
Later in the day, the U.K. was to publish data on construction sector activity, while the U.S. was to publish its weekly report on initial jobless claims, as well as revised data on non-farm productivity and labor costs. The country was also to publish official data on factory orders.
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