Investing.com - The pound rose to one-month highs against the U.S. dollar on Friday, despite the release of mostly disappointing U.K. economic reports, as sentiment on the greenback remained vulnerable after Thursday's U.S. data.
GBP/USD hit 1.5003 during European morning trade, the pair's highest since March 19; the pair subsequently consolidated at 1.4998, gaining 0.42%.
Cable was likely to find support at 1.4809, Thursday's low and resistance at 1.5148, the high of March 18.
In a report, the Office for National Statistics said that the U.K. claimant count dropped 20,700 last month, compared to expectations for a 29,500 decline. February's figure was changed to a 29,100 fall from a previously estimated 31,000 drop.
A separate report showed that the U.K. unemployment rate ticked down to 5.6% in February from 5.7% the previous month, in line with expectations.
In addition, data showed that average U.K. earnings rose 1.7% in February, below expectations for an increase of 1.8%, after an upwardly revised 1.9% gain in January.
Meanwhile, the dollar remained under pressure after the U.S. Department of Labor reported on Thursday that the number of individuals filing for initial jobless benefits increased by 12,000 to 294,000 last week from the previous week’s total of 282,000.
Analysts had expected initial jobless claims to fall by 2,000 to 280,000 last week.
Separately, the U.S. Commerce Department said that the number of building permits issued in March declined by 5.7% last month to 1.039 million units.
The weak data fuelled further speculation that the Federal Reserve could delay hiking interest rates until late 2015, instead of tightening midyear.
Sterling was steady against the euro, with EUR/GBP at 0.7203.
Later in the day, the U.S. was to release data on consumer prices and consumer sentiment.