Investing.com - The pound remained near three-week lows against the U.S. dollar on Thursday, as new hopes that the U.S. could avoid a sovereign default continued to support demand for the greenback.
GBP/USD hit 1.5914 during U.S. morning trade, the pair's lowest since September 18; the pair subsequently consolidated at 1.5946, easing 0.06%.
Cable was likely to find support at 1.5885, the low of September 17 and resistance at 1.6015.
Demand for the dollar remained supported by hopes for a breakthrough in the political impasse in Washington, ahead of a deadline to avoid a U.S. sovereign debt default.
Hopes that the partial U.S. government shutdown may soon end received a boost from news that House Republican leaders were to hold their first meeting with President Barack Obama since the shutdown began later on Thursday.
President Obama has demanded Republicans raise the U.S. debt ceiling and reopen the government before negotiations on future fiscal policy can take place.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew reiterated Thursday that the U.S. will reach its debt ceiling on October 17 and warned that the political crisis is starting to hurt the economy. The comments came during testimony to the Senate finance committee.
The dollar also strengthened after the minutes of the Federal Reserve’s latest meeting showed that most policymakers were still in favor of tapering stimulus this year.
The minutes from the Fed’s September meeting said the decision not to begin tapering stimulus was a "close call," fuelling expectations that the bank will begin to roll back bond purchases in the next few months.
Earlier Thursday, the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee voted to leave its benchmark interest rate on hold at 0.5% and made no changes to its GBP375 billion quantitative easing program.
Sterling was steady againt the euro with EUR/GBP inching down 0.01%, to hit 0.8474.
Investors shrugged off a report by the Department of Labor showing that U.S. initial jobless claims rose to 374,000 last week, an increase of 66,000 from the previous week's unrevised figure of 308,000. The government shutdown accounted for 15,000 claims, the report said.
GBP/USD hit 1.5914 during U.S. morning trade, the pair's lowest since September 18; the pair subsequently consolidated at 1.5946, easing 0.06%.
Cable was likely to find support at 1.5885, the low of September 17 and resistance at 1.6015.
Demand for the dollar remained supported by hopes for a breakthrough in the political impasse in Washington, ahead of a deadline to avoid a U.S. sovereign debt default.
Hopes that the partial U.S. government shutdown may soon end received a boost from news that House Republican leaders were to hold their first meeting with President Barack Obama since the shutdown began later on Thursday.
President Obama has demanded Republicans raise the U.S. debt ceiling and reopen the government before negotiations on future fiscal policy can take place.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew reiterated Thursday that the U.S. will reach its debt ceiling on October 17 and warned that the political crisis is starting to hurt the economy. The comments came during testimony to the Senate finance committee.
The dollar also strengthened after the minutes of the Federal Reserve’s latest meeting showed that most policymakers were still in favor of tapering stimulus this year.
The minutes from the Fed’s September meeting said the decision not to begin tapering stimulus was a "close call," fuelling expectations that the bank will begin to roll back bond purchases in the next few months.
Earlier Thursday, the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee voted to leave its benchmark interest rate on hold at 0.5% and made no changes to its GBP375 billion quantitative easing program.
Sterling was steady againt the euro with EUR/GBP inching down 0.01%, to hit 0.8474.
Investors shrugged off a report by the Department of Labor showing that U.S. initial jobless claims rose to 374,000 last week, an increase of 66,000 from the previous week's unrevised figure of 308,000. The government shutdown accounted for 15,000 claims, the report said.