Forex - GBP/USD little changed ahead of Bernanke speech

Published 08/30/2012, 03:47 AM
GBP/USD
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EUR/GBP
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Investing.com - The pound was little changed against the U.S. dollar on Thursday, as investors considered the prospects for more easing by the Federal Reserve ahead of a speech by the central bank’s Chairman Ben Bernanke on Friday.

GBP/USD hit 1.5842 during European morning trade, the session high; the pair subsequently consolidated at 1.5833, inching up 0.01%.

Cable was likely to find support at 1.5753, Tuesday’s low and near-term resistance at 1.5881, the high of August 22.

Investors remained cautious ahead of Bernanke’s speech at a symposium in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, amid ongoing speculation over how close the Fed may be to implementing more economic stimulus measures.

Revised data on Wednesday showed that the U.S. economy expanded by 1.7% in the second quarter, up from the initial estimate of 1.5% and in line with expectations, on the back of higher consumer spending.

A separate report showed that U.S. pending home sales rose to the highest level since April 2010 in July, increasing by 2.4% after declining 1.4% the previous month.

Overall market sentiment continued to underpinned by expectations that the European Central Bank is working on measures to help stabilize the euro zone's sovereign debt markets and bring down Spanish and Italian borrowing costs ahead of its upcoming policy meeting on September 6.

The outlook for sterling remained fragile as concerns over broad economic weakness kept alive expectations for another round of monetary easing by the Bank of England.

The pound was slightly lower against the euro, with EUR/GBP easing up 0.12% to 0.7922.

Later in the day, the U.K. was to release official data on net lending and mortgage approvals.

Meanwhile, the U.S. was to release official data on personal income as well as a weekly report on jobless claims.



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