Investing.com - The pound remained higher against the U.S. dollar on Monday, as dovish comments by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and unexpectedly weak U.S. housing data sent the greenback broadly lower.
GBP/USD hit 1.5956 during U.S. morning trade, the pair’s highest since March 2; the pair subsequently consolidated at 1.5930, rising 0.38%.
Cable was likely to find support at 1.5800, the day’s low and resistance at 1.5974, the high of March 1.
The dollar weakened earlier amid concerns over a third round of monetary easing after Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke said that further monetary accommodation is needed to bring about big gains in the U.S. jobs market, which he described as “far from normal,” despite a recent improvement.
The greenback was also hit after an industry report showed that pending home sales in the U.S. declined unexpectedly in February, indicating that the recovery in the housing market remains uneven.
The National Association of Realtors said its pending home sales index fell by 0.5% last month, confounding expectations for a 1.0% gain.
Pending home sales rose by 2.0% in January.
Meanwhile, the pound remained supported as Chancellor Angela Merkel gave her first indication that that Germany could agree to combine the region’s two bailout funds, the European Financial Stability Fund and the European Stability Mechanism.
Euro zone finance ministers are to meet on Friday to discuss enlarging the region’s financial firewall by combining the EUR440 billion EFSF and the EUR500 billion ESM to give a total fund of EUR700 billion to fight the debt crisis.
Elsewhere, sterling was steady against the euro with EUR/GBP adding 0.01%, to hit 0.8362.
Later in the day, European Central Bank President Mario Draghi was to speak.
GBP/USD hit 1.5956 during U.S. morning trade, the pair’s highest since March 2; the pair subsequently consolidated at 1.5930, rising 0.38%.
Cable was likely to find support at 1.5800, the day’s low and resistance at 1.5974, the high of March 1.
The dollar weakened earlier amid concerns over a third round of monetary easing after Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke said that further monetary accommodation is needed to bring about big gains in the U.S. jobs market, which he described as “far from normal,” despite a recent improvement.
The greenback was also hit after an industry report showed that pending home sales in the U.S. declined unexpectedly in February, indicating that the recovery in the housing market remains uneven.
The National Association of Realtors said its pending home sales index fell by 0.5% last month, confounding expectations for a 1.0% gain.
Pending home sales rose by 2.0% in January.
Meanwhile, the pound remained supported as Chancellor Angela Merkel gave her first indication that that Germany could agree to combine the region’s two bailout funds, the European Financial Stability Fund and the European Stability Mechanism.
Euro zone finance ministers are to meet on Friday to discuss enlarging the region’s financial firewall by combining the EUR440 billion EFSF and the EUR500 billion ESM to give a total fund of EUR700 billion to fight the debt crisis.
Elsewhere, sterling was steady against the euro with EUR/GBP adding 0.01%, to hit 0.8362.
Later in the day, European Central Bank President Mario Draghi was to speak.