Investing.com - The pound edged up against the U.S. dollar on Monday, but still remained within close distance of a one-and-a-half month low as demand for sterling remained under pressure after data showed that activity in the U.K. construction sector slowed in July.
GBP/USD hit 1.6844 during U.S. morning trade, the session high; the pair subsequently consolidated at 1.6838, adding 0.10%.
Cable was likely to find support at 1.6790, the low of June 12 and resistance at 1.6891, the high of August 1.
The U.K. construction purchasing managers’ index slowed to 62.4 from 62.6 in June, but was still slightly ahead of expectations for a reading of 62.0.
The overall pace of growth was the fastest since 2007, with housing activity still by far the best performing construction category. Last month’s increase in output was the sharpest for over a decade.
Sharp increases in overall construction activity also led to a new survey-record pace of job creation in the sector last month.
Meanwhile, demand for the dollar remained supported despite data on Friday showing that U.S. jobs growth slowed in July.
The U.S. economy added 209,000 jobs last month, below forecasts for jobs growth of 233,000.
Although it was the sixth successive month that the U.S. economy added more than 200,000 jobs, the unemployment rate unexpectedly ticked up to 6.2% from 6.1% in June. In addition, wage growth was flat, pointing to underlying slack in the economy.
The data prompted investors to trim back expectations on the timing of a possible rate hike by the Federal Reserve.
Sterling was higher against the euro, with EUR/GBP edging down 0.17% to 0.7970.
Also Monday, official data showed that the number of unemployed people in Spain dropped by 29,800 last month, compared to expectations for a decline of 116,300. In June, the number of unemployed people in Spain declined by 122,700.