Forex - GBP/USD trims gains to trade little changed

Published 11/19/2012, 08:09 AM
GBP/USD
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EUR/GBP
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Investing.com - The pound trimmed earlier gains to trade little changed against the U.S. dollar on Monday, as investors continued to monitor fiscal cliff negotiations between U.S. lawmakers while looking ahead to a meeting of euro zone finance ministers on Tuesday.  

GBP/USD hit 1.5923 during European morning trade, the pair’s highest since November 9; the pair subsequently consolidated at 1.5889, inching up 0.04%.

Cable was likely to find support at 1.5834, Friday’s low and resistance at 1.6018, the high of November 9.

Investors continued to monitor developments surrounding the looming “fiscal cliff” in the U.S., approximately USD600 billion in automatic tax hikes and spending cuts due to come into effect on January 1.

Sentiment was bolstered after U.S. Congressional leaders said talks with President Barack Obama on Friday to avert the fiscal crisis were "constructive."

There are fears the U.S. economy will fall back into a recession, unless a divided Congress and the White House can work out a compromise in the six weeks left before the January 1 deadline.

Meanwhile, traders looked ahead to a meeting of euro zone finance ministers on Tuesday to discuss unlocking Greece’s next tranche of financial aid.

Concerns over the economic outlook for the region persisted after official data earlier showed that Italian industrial orders tumbled by 4.0% in September, after a 0.6% increase the previous month.

A separate report showed that the level of loans in arrears in Spanish banks rose to a record 10.7% in September.

Sentiment on sterling remained weak after the Bank of England raised its forecast for short-term inflation last week and said growth would remain sluggish.

Elsewhere, the pound was fractionally lower against the euro, with EUR/GBP inching up 0.09% to 0.8031.

Later Monday, the U.S. was to release an industry report on existing home sales.

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