The pound slipped to fresh 14-month lows against the U.S. dollar on Friday, after the release of downbeat U.K. trade balance data, while markets eyed the release of U.S. employment data later in the trading session.
Cable was likely to find support at 1.5504 and resistance at 1.6003, Thursday's high.GBP/USD hit 1.5816 during European morning trade, the pair's lowest since September 2013; the pair subsequently consolidated at 1.5820, easing 0.08%.
In a report, the Office for National Statistics said the U.K. trade deficit widened to £9.82 billion in September from £8.95 billion in August, whose figure was revised from a previously estimated deficit of £9.10 billion.
Analysts had expected the trade deficit to widen to £9.40 billion in September.
The report came a day after the Bank of England monetary policy committee voted to leave U.K. interest rates at their current record lows of 0.5%. The MPC also made no changes to its asset purchase scheme.
Investors had pushed back expectations for a rate hike by the BoE after a report on Wednesday showed that the U.K. service sector expanded at the slowest rate in 17 months in October, adding to indications that the rate of the economic recovery is cooling.
Meanwhile, the dollar remained supported after data on Thursday showed that the number of people who filed for unemployment assistance in the U.S. last week fell more than expected, fueling optimism over the strength of the labor market.
The U.S. Department of Labor reported on Thursday that the number of individuals filing for initial jobless benefits in the week ending November 1 decreased by 10,000 to 278,000 from the previous week's revised total of 288,000.
Sterling was lower against the euro, with EUR/GBP adding 0.25% to 0.7834.
Later in the day, the U.S. was to release a report on nonfarm payrolls and the unemployment rate.
