Investing.com - The pound weakened against the dollar Thursday after data revealed fewer in the U.S. sought first-time joblessness assistance last week.
In U.S. trading on Thursday, GBP/USD was trading down 0.08% at 1.6842 up from a session low of 1.6824 and off a high of 1.6864.
Cable was likely to find support at 1.6822, Wednesday's low, and resistance at 1.6888, Tuesday's high.
The U.S. Department of Labor reported earlier that the number of individuals filing for initial jobless benefits in the week ending Aug. 2 fell by 14,000 to 289,000 from the previous week’s total of 303,000.
Analysts had expected jobless claims to rise by 2,000 to 305,000 last week, and the numbers fueled already growing market expectations for the Federal Reserve to close its monthly bond-buying stimulus program in October and begin hiking interest rates afterwards in 2015.
Demand for the greenback has been on the rise in recent sessions due to upbeat U.S. trade balance, service-sector, economic growth and other data.
Meanwhile in the U.K., the Bank of England said it was maintaining the benchmark interest rate at 0.50% and that the stock of asset purchases financed by the issuance of central bank reserves will remain at £375 billion.
Elsewhere, sterling was up against the euro, with EUR/GBP down 0.13% at 0.7931, and down against the yen, with GBP/JPY down 0.07% at 171.96.