Investing.com - The pound rose to one-week highs against the U.S. dollar on Thursday, as risk sentiment mildly improved ahead of highly anticipated U.S. economic reports on second quarter growth and last week's jobless claims.
GBP/USD hit 1.6614 during European morning trade, the pair's highest since August 20; the pair subsequently consolidated at 1.6606, edging up 0.18%.
Cable was likely to find support at 1.6537, Wednesday's low and a five-month low and resistance at 1.6679, the high of August 20.
Investors were turning their attention to upcoming data on U.S. second quarter GDP and the weekly government report on initial jobless claims for further indications on the strength of the U.S. economic recovery.
Last week, Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said at Jackson Hole that the U.S. economy is recovering and added the labor market is improving as well.
The pound was steady against the euro, with EUR/GBP easing 0.04% to 0.7957.
In the euro zone, data showed that the number of unemployed people in Germany rose by 2,000 last month, confounding expectations for a decline of 5,000. The change in the number of unemployed people for June was revised to a 11,000 drop from a previously estimated 12,000 decline.
Separately, preliminary data showed that consumer price inflation in Spain fell at an annualized rate of 0.5% this month, compared to expectations for a 0.2% downtick, after a 0.3% fall in July.
Meanwhile, expectations for fresh easing by the European Central Bank slightly eased after German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schauble said on Wednesday that ECB President Mario Draghi's recent comments on the matter have been "over-interpreted."