Investing.com - The pound edged down to fresh two-month lows against the U.S. dollar on Tuesday, as markets remained jittery amid ongoing geopolitical concerns.
GBP/USD hit 1.6757 during European morning trade, the pair's lowest since June 11; the pair subsequently consolidated at 1.6768, slipping 0.10%.
Cable was likely to find support at 1.6739, the low of June 11 and resistance at 1.6831, the high of August 8.
Investors remained cautious after Iraq on Monday named Haidar al-Abadi as the new prime minister to end the eight-year rule of Nuri al-Maliki, but Maliki has refused to go and deployed special forces in Baghdad.
In Ukraine, a Russian convoy of 280 trucks carrying humanitarian aid set off on Tuesday amid Western warnings against using help as a pretext for an invasion.
Market participants were looking ahead to Wednesday's inflation report from the Bank of England, as well as revised data on second quarter U.K. economic growth due to be released on Friday.
Sterling was higher against the euro, with EUR/GBP falling 0.21% to 0.7957.
The euro came under broad selling pressure after a report showed that investor confidence in Germany, the euro zone’s largest economy slumped to the lowest level since December 2012 this month.
The ZEW Centre for Economic Research reported that its index of German economic sentiment dropped to 8.6 this month, down from 27.1 in July. It was the weakest reading in 20 months and was well below economists’ forecasts of 18.2.
The report said the decline in economic sentiment was likely connected the impact of ongoing geopolitical tensions on the German economy.
Recent economic reports have indicated that sanctions on Russia as a result of the conflict in Ukraine are acting as a drag on the German economy. Germany is Russia’s largest trading partner in Europe.
The ZEW report also indicated that economic growth in Germany will be weaker than expected in 2014.