Investing.com - The pound held steady against the U.S. dollar on Thursday, after the release of mixed U.S. economic reports and as the Bank of England kept its monetary policy unchanged in a widely anticipated decision.
GBP/USD hit 1.6750 during U.S. morning trade, the pair's highest since March 3; the pair subsequently consolidated at 1.6732, easing up 0.06%.
Cable was likely to find support at 1.6584, the low of February 24 and resistance at 1.6823, the high of February 17.
The U.S. Department of Labor said the number of individuals filing for initial jobless benefits fell by 26,000 last week to a seasonally adjusted 323,000 from the previous week’s revised total of 349,000.
Analysts had expected jobless claims to fall by 11,000 to 338,000 last week.
A separate report showed that U.S. factory orders declined by 0.7% in January, compared to forecasts for a 0.4% drop.
Market players were looking ahead to Friday’s highly-anticipated nonfarm payrolls report for February, after job growth came in below expectations in December and January.
Earlier Thursday, the BoE voted to leave U.K. interest rates unchanged at their record low of 0.5%, and also left its quantitative easing program steady at 375 billion pounds.
Sterling was lower against the euro, with EUR/GBP climbing 0.70% to 0.8271.
The single currency found support after European Central Bank President Mario Draghi confirmed that the bank left its benchmark interest rate unchanged at 0.5%, with the latest economic data indicating that “the moderate economic recovery in the euro zone is proceeding.
Draghi reiterated the ECB’s forward guidance on rates, saying that interest rates will remain at their present levels, or lower for an extended period. The ECB remains determined to maintain the high degree of accommodative monetary policy for as long as needed, and will take further actions as it sees fit, he added.
The central bank revised its forecast for economic growth in 2014 to 1.2% from 1.1% in December.
However, the bank revised down its inflation forecast for this year to 1.0% from 1.1% in December. The bank expects inflation to pick up to 1.3% in 2015 and 1.5% in 2016, remaining below the bank’s target of just under 2%.