Investing.com - The pound pared gains against the U.S. dollar on Tuesday, pulling back from a two-day high as concerns over the debt crisis persisted despite a flurry of upbeat data from the U.S., the euro zone and China.
GBP/USD pulled back from 1.5405, the pair’s highest since January 13 to hit 1.5353 during U.S. morning trade, still up 0.17%.
Cable was likely to find support at 1.5276, Monday’s low and resistance at 1.5409, the high of January 13.
In the U.S., data showed that an index of manufacturing conditions in New York improved more-than-expected in January, climbing to the highest level since April.
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York said that its general business conditions index improved by 4.0 points to 13.5 in January from 9.5 in December. Analysts had expected the index to improve by 1.0 point to 10.5 in January.
Sentiment found support earlier after the ZEW Centre said that its index of German business sentiment recorded its largest ever monthly increase in January, indicating that the euro zone’s largest economy is performing strongly despite the effects of the region’s debt crisis.
Risk appetite also strengthened after better-than-forecast data on Chinese fourth quarter growth eased concerns over the outlook for global economic growth.
But investors remained cautious after Standard & Poor’s downgraded the triple-A rating of the euro zone’s bailout fund by one notch on Monday, following Friday’s downgrade of nine euro zone sovereigns, including France.
Meanwhile, talks aimed at negotiating a restructuring of Greece’s debts remained deadlocked, amid disagreements over a bond swap with private creditors.
Elsewhere, the pound was lower against the euro with EUR/GBP adding 0.37%, to hit 0.8297.
Also Tuesday, official data showed that the annualized rate of consumer price inflation in the U.K. declined to 4.2% in December, from 4.8% the previous month.
The steep decline supported the Bank of England’s view that inflation will fall off sharply in 2012, allowing the bank to ease monetary policy further.
GBP/USD pulled back from 1.5405, the pair’s highest since January 13 to hit 1.5353 during U.S. morning trade, still up 0.17%.
Cable was likely to find support at 1.5276, Monday’s low and resistance at 1.5409, the high of January 13.
In the U.S., data showed that an index of manufacturing conditions in New York improved more-than-expected in January, climbing to the highest level since April.
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York said that its general business conditions index improved by 4.0 points to 13.5 in January from 9.5 in December. Analysts had expected the index to improve by 1.0 point to 10.5 in January.
Sentiment found support earlier after the ZEW Centre said that its index of German business sentiment recorded its largest ever monthly increase in January, indicating that the euro zone’s largest economy is performing strongly despite the effects of the region’s debt crisis.
Risk appetite also strengthened after better-than-forecast data on Chinese fourth quarter growth eased concerns over the outlook for global economic growth.
But investors remained cautious after Standard & Poor’s downgraded the triple-A rating of the euro zone’s bailout fund by one notch on Monday, following Friday’s downgrade of nine euro zone sovereigns, including France.
Meanwhile, talks aimed at negotiating a restructuring of Greece’s debts remained deadlocked, amid disagreements over a bond swap with private creditors.
Elsewhere, the pound was lower against the euro with EUR/GBP adding 0.37%, to hit 0.8297.
Also Tuesday, official data showed that the annualized rate of consumer price inflation in the U.K. declined to 4.2% in December, from 4.8% the previous month.
The steep decline supported the Bank of England’s view that inflation will fall off sharply in 2012, allowing the bank to ease monetary policy further.