Investing.com - The pound approached six-year highs against the dollar on Monday after mixed U.S. data prompted investors to avoid the greenback ahead of a key manufacturing report on Tuesday and the widely-watched June jobs report due out on Thursday.
In U.S. trading on Monday, GBP/USD was trading up 0.43% at 1.7110, up from a session low of 1.7007 and off a high of 1.7115.
Cable was likely to find support at 1.6952, Wednesday's low, and resistance at 1.7516, the high from Oct. 20, 2008.
Soft regional manufacturing data offset upbeat housing data and weakened the greenback on Monday.
The National Association of Realtors reported earlier that pending home sales jumped 6.1% in May from April, far surpassing forecasts for a 1.5% reading.
Still, the dollar slipped after industry data released earlier revealed that the Chicago purchasing managers’ index declined to 62.6 this month from 65.5 in May, missing expectations for a 63.0 reading.
Investors began focusing on the U.S. June nonfarm payrolls report, which will release a day early on Thursday due to the Independence Day holiday on Friday, avoiding the dollar during the trading session to await the jobs data as well as a key manufacturing gauge on Tuesday.
The pound, meanwhile, continued to see support after Friday data confirmed that the U.K. economy expanded by 0.8% in the first three months of 2014. The economy grew at an annual rate of 3.0% in the first quarter, the fastest since 2007.
Bank of England Governor Mark Carney has indicated that rates were unlikely to return to their pre-crisis levels of 5%, but instead could be expected to rise to around 2.5% by the first quarter of 2017.
The BoE announced a new affordability test on banks and a cap on home loans on Thursday, in a bid to prevent the housing market from destabilizing the U.K. economy.
Demand for sterling continued to be underpinned as the new measures did little to alter expectations that the BoE will raise interest rates ahead of other central banks.
Elsewhere, sterling was up against the euro, with EUR/GBP down 0.06% at 0.8004, and up against the yen, with GBP/JPY up 0.27% at 173.24.
On Tuesday, expect the pair to move on the Institute of Supply Management's report on U.S. U.S. manufacturing activity.