Investing.com - The pound dropped to fresh six-week lows against the U.S. dollar on Friday, after the release of downbeat U.K. service sector data and as expectations for a March rate hike in the U.S. continued to support demand for the greenback.
GBP/USD hit 1.2227 during European morning trade, the pair’s lowest since January 17; the pair subsequently consolidated at 1.2235, shedding 0.26%.
Cable was likely to find support at 1.2148, the low of January 12 and resistance at 1.2308, Thursday’s high.
Research group Markit said its U.K. services purchasing managers’ index dropped to a five-month low of 53.3 last month from 54.5 in January. Analysts had expected the index to fall to 54.1 in February.
Meanwhile, the greenback remained broadly supported after a number of Federal Reserve officials this week expressed their support for a March rate hike.
The dollar was also boosted after the U.S. Department of Labor said initial jobless claims declined by 19,000 to 223,000 in the week ending February 25 from the previous week’s total of 242,000.
Analysts expected jobless claims to rise by 1,000 to 243,000 last week.
Sterling was also lower against the euro, with EUR/GBP advancing 0.41% to 0.8603.