Investing.com - The pound pulled away from session highs against the U.S. dollar on Tuesday, after the release of disappointing U.K. economic growth and mortgage approvals data, while investors remained cautious ahead of the Federal Reserve's upcoming policy meeting.
GBP/USD pulled away from 1.5117, the session high, to hold steady at 1.5075 during European morning trade.
Cable was likely to find support at 1.4947, the low of January 23 and resistance at 1.5212, the high of January 22.
In a report, the Office for National Statistics said U.K. gross domestic product expanded by 0.5% in the final three months of 2014, below forecasts for growth of 0.6%. The U.K.’s economy grew by 0.7% in the previous quarter.
Year-over-year, U.K. economic growth grew 2.7% in the three months ending December, missing expectations for a gain of 2.8%. The U.K. economy expanded at an annualized rate of 2.6% in the third quarter of 2014.
A separate report showed that U.K. mortgage approvals decreased to a 20-month low of 35,700 last month from November's total of 36,700. Analysts had expected the number of new mortgages approved to decline to 36,600 in December.
Meanwhile, market participants were looking ahead to the outcome of Wednesday’s Fed meeting, with the bank expected to stick to its pledge to be patient on tightening monetary policy.
Sterling was lower against the euro, with EUR/GBP gaining 0.67% to 0.7504.
Later in the day, the U.S. was to release data on durable goods orders, as well as private sector reports on consumer confidence and new home sales.