Investing.com - The pound slid lower against the U.S. dollar on Friday, as the greenback regained some ground ahead of a highly-anticipated U.S. employment report due later in the day.
GBP/USD hit 1.4515 during European morning trade, the pair’s lowest since February 3; the pair subsequently consolidated at 1.4527, declining 0.42%.
Cable was likely to find support at 1.4380, the low of February 3 and resistance at 1.4652, Thursday’s high and a one-month high.
The dollar had come under pressure after New York Federal Reserve President William Dudley said on Wednesday that the weakening outlook for the global economy and any further strengthening of the dollar could have "significant consequences" for the health of the U.S. economy.
Investors were looking ahead to the U.S. nonfarm payrolls report for January, due later Friday, for fresh indications on the strength of the labor market.
Data on Thursday showed that initial jobless claims rose by a larger-than-forecast 8,000 to 285,000 last week, but remained in territory usually associated with a firming labor market.
Sterling was also lower against the euro, with EUR/GBP rising 0.26% to 0.7704.
In the euro zone, data earlier showed that German factory orders fell by 0.7% in December, compared to expectations for a downtick of 0.5%, after a 1.5% increase the previous month.