Investing.com - The pound rose against the dollar on Monday as investors applauded solid U.K. construction data, though the greenback saw support of its own after markets concluded Friday's U.S. jobs report indicated the U.S. labor market is recovering despite missing expectations.
In U.S. trading on Monday, GBP/USD was trading up 0.11% at 1.6841 up from a session low of 1.6813 and off a high of 1.6845.
Cable was likely to find support at 1.6739, the low from June 11, and resistance at 1.7001, the high from July 28.
The U.K. construction purchasing managers’ index slowed to 62.4 in July from 62.6 in June, better than expectations for a 62.0 reading.
The overall pace of growth was still the fastest since 2007, which gave the pound an edge over the dollar, though Friday's jobs report in the U.S. gave the greenback some support after investors spent the weekend digesting the data.
The Labor Department reported Friday that the U.S. economy added 209,000 jobs in July, missing expectations for an increase of 233,000, though July marked the sixth consecutive month that the U.S. economy created over 200,000 new payrolls.
The report also showed that the U.S. unemployment rate ticked up to 6.2% last month from 6.1% in June. Analysts had expected the rate to remain unchanged in July, though the report revealed that more unemployed Americans were entering the labor force in search of work, a positive sign.
The unemployment rate does not include discouraged unemployed people who have given up actively searching for work, so a decision by many to look for jobs can send the headline rate higher, though it also suggests out-of-work Americans are more hopeful with their job prospects.
Elsewhere, sterling was up against the euro, with EUR/GBP down 0.26% at 0.7963, and flat against the yen, with GBP/JPY up 0.01% at 172.62.
On Tuesday, the U.K. is to release a report on service-sector activity.
The U.S. is to publish data on factory orders, while the Institute of Supply Management is to release data on service-sector activity.