Investing.com - The pound rose to fresh five-month highs against the U.S. dollar on Wednesday, after data showed that U.K. unemployment rate fell to a six-and-a-half year low last month, while demand for the greenback remained broadly under pressure.
GBP/USD hit 1.5742 during European morning trade, the pair's highest since December 17; the pair subsequently consolidated at 1.5725, gaining 0.37%.
Cable was likely to find support at 1.5554, Tuesday's low and resistance 1.5786, the high of December 16.
In a report, the U.K. Office for National Statistics said that the unemployment rate ticked down to 5.5% last month from 5.6% in March, hitting the lowest level since September 2008, in line with expectations.
The report also showed that the U.K. claimant count change dropped by 12,600 in April, confounding expectations for a 20,000 decline. March's figure was revised to a 16,700 fall from a previously estimated drop of 20,700.
Data also showed that U.K. average earnings excluding bonuses rose 2.2% in March, exceeding expectations for a 2.1% increase, after an upwardly revised 1.9% gain the previous month.
Meanwhile, the dollar remained under broad selling pressure ahead of U.S. data on retail sales later in the day, after recent economic reports pointed to weakness in first quarter growth.
Sterling was also higher against the euro, with EUR/GBP shedding 0.22% to 0.7139.
Earlier Wednesday, data showed that the French economy grew 0.6% in the first quarter, the fastest rate of growth in two years.