Investing.com - The pound trimmed losses against the U.S. dollar on Thursday, after the Bank of England left its monetary policy unchanged although a disappointing report on the U.K. trade balance continued to weigh.
GBP/USD pulled away from 1.4764, the pair's lowest since April 1, to hit 1.4830 during early European afternoon trade, still down 0.26%.
Cable was likely to find support at 1.4685, the low of March 19 and resistance at 1.4974, Wednesday's high.
The pound found some support after the BoE left interest rates unchanged at their current record low of 0.50%, where they have been since March 2009. The central bank also maintained the stock of asset purchases financed by the issuance of central bank reserves at £375 billion.
Earlier Thursday, the U.K. Office for National Statistics reported that the country's trade deficit widened to £10.34 billion in February from £9.17 billion in January, whose figure was revised from a previously estimated deficit of £8.41 billion.
Analysts had expected the trade deficit to hit £9.00 billion in February.
A separate report showed that U.K. house prices rose 0.4% last month, exceeding expectations for a 0.2% gain. February's change in house prices was revised to a 0.4% fall from a previously estimated 0.3% downtick.
Meanwhile, the dollar remained supported after New York Federal Reserve President William Dudley said Wednesday that the timing of a rate hike depends on economic data and added that a rate hike in June could still be possible if the labor market recovery remained strong.
Fed Governor Jerome Powell said he would be willing to start tightening policy despite current low levels of inflation, adding the Fed could act in June if economic data over the next two months showed that the recovery remained on track.
Separately, Wednesday’s minutes of the Fed’s March meeting showed that several officials believe the economic outlook is likely to warrant an interest rate hike in June.
Sterling was lower against the euro, with EUR/GBP adding 0.17% to 0.7262.
Also Thursday, data showed that German industrial production rose 0.2% in February, ahead of expectations for a 0.1% gain as the production of energy and capital goods increased.
Another report showed that German exports rose 1.5% in February while imports also increased, pointing to growth in the region’s largest economy.
Later in the day, the Institute of Supply Management is to release data on U.S. service sector activity.