Pound Falls As U.K. Jobless Rate Increases
21 Februar 2018 - 6:35AM
RTTF2
The pound weakened against its key counterparts in early
European deals on Wednesday, following a data showing an uptick in
U.K. jobless rate in the fourth quarter.
Data from the Office for National Statistics showed that the ILO
unemployment rate rose by 0.1 percentage points to 4.4 percent in
three months to December. In the same period of last year, the rate
was 4.8 percent.
The rate was forecast to remain unchanged at 4.3 percent.
The number of unemployed rose by 46,000 from the September
quarter to 1.47 million.
Further undermining the currency was risk aversion, as European
stocks tracked Wall Street lower in the wake of a rising dollar,
disappointing results from Walmart and climbing bond yields on
expectations of a faster pace of interest rate increases from the
Federal Reserve.
The currency traded mixed in the Asian session. While it rose
against the yen and the franc, it held steady against the euro.
Against the greenback, it declined.
Pulling away from an early near a 2-week high of 150.93 against
the yen, the pound edged down to 149.78. The pound is poised to
challenge support around the 147.00 level.
Data from the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry showed
that Japan's all industry activity growth halved in December.
The all industry activity index rose 0.5 percent month-on-month
in December, following November's 1 percent increase. Nonetheless,
this was the third consecutive increase in activity and bigger than
the expected 0.4 percent rise.
The pound slipped to a 1-week low of 1.3930 against the dollar,
from a high of 1.4008 seen at 7:30 pm ET. Further downtrend for the
pound is likely to see it finding support around the 1.38 mark.
The U.K. currency reversed from an early high of 1.3119 against
the Swiss franc, dropping to 1.3061. If the pound extends drop,
1.28 is seen as its next support level.
Having advanced to 0.8806 against the euro at 2:30 am ET, the
pound reversed direction and fell to 0.8847. The pound is seen
finding support around the 0.90 mark.
Flash data from IHS Markit showed that Eurozone private sector
growth continued to rise at a steep pace in February, albeit with
the rate of expansion cooling from the near 12-year high in
January.
The composite output index dropped to 57.5 from 58.8 in the
previous month. The score was forecast to fall to 58.4.
Looking ahead, Markit's U.S. manufacturing PMI for February and
existing home sales for January are scheduled for release in the
New York session.
The Bank of England Governor Mark Carney, Deputy Governor Ben
Broadbent and policy makers Andy Haldane and Silvana Tenreyro will
testify on inflation and the economic outlook before the Treasury
Select Committee at 9:15 am ET.
At 2:00 pm ET, the Fed minutes from January 30-31 meeting are
due.
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