Investing.com - The pound dropped to three-and-a-half week lows against the U.S. dollar on Friday, weighed by downbeat service sector data from the U.K., while demand for the greenback strengthened ahead of a highly anticipated report on U.S. employment.
GBP/USD hit 1.6088 during European morning trade, the pair's lowest since September 10; the pair subsequently consolidated at 1.6085, declining 0.36%.
Cable was likely to find support at 1.6050, the low of September 10 and resistance at 1.6251, Thursday's high.
Markit research group said the U.K. services purchasing managers' index slipped to 58.7 in September from a reading of 60.5 the previous month. Analysts had expected the index to tick down to 59.1 last month.
Meanwhile, the dollar remained supported the U.S. Department of Labor reported on Thursday that the number of individuals filing for initial jobless benefits in the week ending September 27 decreased by 8,000 to 287,000 from the previous week’s revised total of 295,000.
Investors were looking ahead the U.S. nonfarm payrolls report due later in the day, which was expected to show that the economy added more than 200,000 jobs for a sixth successive month in August.
Sterling was fractionally lower against the euro, with EUR/GBP adding 0.08% to 0.7853.
The euro came under pressure after Markit said the euro zone services PMI ticked down to 52.4 in September from 52.8 the previous month, confounding expectations for the index to remain unchanged.
Markit also reported that Germany's services PMI rose to 55.7 last month from a reading of 55.4 in August, while France's services PMI fell to 48.4 in September from 49.4 in August.