Investing.com - The pound dropped against the dollar on Thursday after the Bank of England made no changes to monetary policy, while upbeat U.S. weekly jobless claims numbers gave the U.S. currency an edge over sterling
In U.S. trading on Thursday, GBP/USD was down 0.75% at 1.5854, up from a session low of 1.5843 and off a high of 1.6002.
Cable was likely to find support at 1.5800, the low from Jan. 23, 2013, and resistance at 1.6023, Wednesday's high.
The pound softened after the Bank of England’s monetary policy committee voted to leave U.K. interest rates at their current record lows of 0.5%.
The MPC also made no changes to its asset purchase scheme.
The decision came a day after data revealed that the U.K. service sector expanded at the slowest rate in 17 months in October, adding to indications that the rate of the economic recovery is cooling.
While the Bank of England's decision to leave policy unchanged surprised few, lackluster indicators have many investors pushing back expectations as to when the Bank of England may begin hiking benchmark interest rates.
Meanwhile across the Atlantic, the dollar found support after the number of people who filed for unemployment assistance in the U.S. last week fell more than expected, fueling optimism over the strength of the labor market, official data showed on Thursday.
The U.S. Department of Labor reported earlier that the number of individuals filing for initial jobless benefits in the week ending Nov. 1 decreased by 10,000 to 278,000 from the previous week’s revised total of 288,000.
Analysts had expected jobless claims to fall by 3,000 to 285,000 last week.
The number of Americans applying for new jobless benefits held below 300,000 for the eighth consecutive week, a sign that recovery in the labor market may be gaining momentum.
Continuing jobless claims in the week ended Oct. 25 fell to 2.348 million from 2.387 million in the preceding week. Analysts had expected continuing claims to decline to 2.360 million.
The four-week moving average came to 279,000, a decline of 2,250 from the previous week’s total of 281,250. The monthly average is seen as a more accurate gauge of labor trends because it reduces volatility in the week-to-week data.
Elsewhere, sterling was down against the euro, with EUR/GBP up 0.15% at 0.7826, and down against the yen, with GBP/JPY down 0.57% at 182.13.
On Friday, expect the pair to move on the U.S. October jobs report.