Forex - GBP/USD little changed ahead of U.S. jobless claims report

Investing.com - The pound was little changed against the dollar on Thursday after the Federal Reserve said it would continue its quantitative easing program at the outcome of its latest policy meeting.

GBP/USD hit 1.5842 during European afternoon trade, the pair’s highest since January 24; the pair subsequently consolidated at 1.5816, easing up 0.10%.

Cable was likely to find support at 1.5790, the session low and resistance at 1.5891, the high of January 23.

The Fed said it would continue to pursue its easing program at the outcome of its latest policy meeting and reiterated that it would hold interest rates close to zero until the U.S. unemployment rate falls below 6.5%.

Investors were looking ahead to U.S. data on nonfarm payrolls data on Friday after Wednesday’s ADP nonfarm payroll report showed that the U.S. private sector added 192,000 jobs in January, above expectations for an increase of 165,000.

Market sentiment remained cautious after data on Wednesday showed that the U.S. economy unexpectedly contracted by 0.1% in the fourth quarter, a sharp slowdown from growth of 3.1% in the preceding quarter.

Concerns over the faltering economic recovery in the U.K. continued to curb demand for sterling after data last week showed that the U.K. economy contracted 0.3% in the fourth quarter, putting Britain on track for a triple-dip recession.

Elsewhere, the euro eased against the pound but remained close to more than one-year highs, with EUR/GBP slipping 0.19% to 0.8569.

In the euro zone data showed that German retail sales fell 1.7% in December, the sharpest drop in more than three years.

Elsewhere, Germany’s largest bank Deutsche Bank posted a surprise net loss of EUR2.2 billion for the fourth quarter.

This was offset by a report showing that the number of unemployed people in Germany fell by 16,000 in January, double expectations for a decline of 8,000 bringing the unemployment rate down to 6.8% from 6.9% in December.

The U.S. was to release the weekly government report on initial jobless claims later in the trading day.