Investing.com - The pound edged higher against the U.S. dollar on Friday, but were held in check as demand for the greenback remained broadly supported despite Thursday\'s mixed bag of U.S. data.
GBP/USD hit 1.5225 during European morning trade, the session high; the pair subsequently consolidated at 1.5212, adding 0.20%.
Cable was likely to find support at 1.5074, the low of January 13 and resistance at 1.5270, the high of January 14.
The dollar showed little reaction to data on Thursday showing that the number of people who filed for unemployment assistance in the U.S. last week rose to a four-month high of 316,000, compared to expectations for a decline of 6,000.
A separate report showed that U.S. producer prices fell by the most in three years in December, falling 0.3% as energy costs tumbled.
In addition, the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia said that its manufacturing index deteriorated to an 11-month low of 6.3 this month from December’s reading of 24.5, while the New York Fed said that its general business conditions index increased to 10.0 this month from a reading of -3.6 in December.
Meanwhile, sentiment on the pound remained vulnerable after data earlier in thw week showed that the annual rate of consumer inflation in the U.K. slowed to 0.5% last month from 1.0% in November. Economists had expected a smaller decline to 0.7%.
The slowdown in inflation underlined expectations that the Bank of England will keep interest rates on hold at record lows for most of this year.
Sterling was higher against the euro, with EUR/GBP shedding 0.29% to 0.7636.
The euro was hit after the Swiss National Bank on Thursday scrapped the 1.20 per euro exchange rate floor it imposed in September 2011, in a bid to stave off deflation and prevent the continued appreciation of the safe-haven franc.
The move indicated that the SNB sees a high likelihood that the European Central Bank will implement quantitative easing measures at its upcoming meeting next week.
Later in the day, the U.S. was to release a report on industrial production and preliminary data on consumer sentiment.
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