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Forex - GBP/USD falls as end to U.S. fiscal impasse comes into view

Published 10/16/2013, 03:55 PM
Updated 10/16/2013, 03:56 PM
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Investing.com - The pound weakened against the dollar on Thursday after U.S. Senators agreed on terms to end a fiscal impasse that closed the federal government and had threatened to throw the U.S. into default.

In U.S. trading on Wednesday, GBP/USD was trading at 1.5946, down 0.32%, up from a session low of 1.5894 and off from a high of 1.6058.
 
Cable was likely to find support at 1.5885, the low from Sept. 17, and resistance at 1.6124, the high from Oct. 8.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Democrat, and the Senate's top Republican, Mitch McConnell, said they agreed on a plan to end the fiscal impasse needed to reopen the government as well as extend Washington's borrowing authority to avoid defaults.

The budget deal will reportedly give the Treasury the authority to continue borrowing through Feb. 7 and fund the government through Jan. 15, but will also add in spending cuts, which appeased Republicans.

The Treasury was due to hit hits debt ceiling on Thursday, after which the government could not guarantee payments on obligations for much longer.

House Speaker John Boehner said earlier the House would not block the compromise.

U.S. credit ratings agency Fitch Ratings on Tuesday placed the U.S. 'AAA' debt on "rating watch negative" due to congressional inability to pass a spending package.

Expectations for an end to the U.S. fiscal deadlock wiped out the pound's gains against the greenback sustained earlier after data showed that the number of people claiming unemployment benefits in the U.K. posted the largest decline since June 1997 in September.

The Office for National Statistics said that the U.K. claimant count fell by 41,700 in September, outstripping expectations for a decline of 25,000 people.

The rate of unemployment held steady at 7.7% in August, in line with expectations and unchanged from July.

The pound, meanwhile, was down against the euro and up against the yen, with EUR/GBP up 0.34% at 0.8484 and GBP/JPY up 0.33% at 157.58.

On Thursday, the U.K. is to produce data on retail sales, the government measure of consumer spending, which accounts for the majority of overall economic activity.

The U.S. is to publish the weekly government report on initial jobless claims, as well as data on manufacturing activity from the Philly Fed.












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