Investing.com - The pound was steady against the U.S. dollar on Friday, after the release of mixed U.K. economic reports, while markets eyed highly anticipated U.S. employment data due later in the day.
GBP/USD hit 1.6358 during European morning trade, the pair's highest since February 3; the pair subsequently consolidated at 1.6332, easing up 0.06%.
Cable was likely to find support at 1.6253, the low of February 5 and a seven-week low and resistance at 1.6438, the high of February 3.
Official data showed that U.K. manufacturing production rose 0.3% in December, less than the expected 0.6% increase. Manufacturing production in November was revised down to a 0.1% fall from a previously estimated flat reading.
A separate report showed that the U.K. trade deficit narrowed to GBP7.7 billion in December, compared to expectations for a deficit of GBP9.3 billion. The trade deficit in November was revised to GBP9.8 billion from a previously estimated deficit of GBP9.4 billion.
The data came a day after the Bank of England voted to leave interest rates steady at record lows of 0.5%, where they have been unchanged since March 2009. The bank also made no change to its quantitative easing program, which remains at 375 billion pounds.
Meanwhile, the dollar remained under pressure ahead of U.S. employment data to be released later in the trading session, which was expected to give more indications on the strength of the labor market's recovery.
On Thursday, the Labor Department said initial jobless claims fell by 20,000 to 331,000 from the previous week’s revised total of 351,000. Analysts had expected jobless claims to fall by 16,000.
Sterling was higher against the euro, with EUR/GBP slipping 0.19% to 0.8310.
Also Friday, data showed that Germany's trade surplus narrowed to EUR18.5 billion in December, from EUR18.9 billion the previous month. Analysts had expected the trade surplus to narrow to EUR17.3 billion in December.