Investing.com - The pound rose to more than two-week highs against the U.S. dollar on Thursday, supported by the release of upbeat U.K. retail sales data and as the minutes of the Federal Reserve’s latest policy meeting dampened demand for the greenback.
GBP/USD hit 1.3157 during European morning trade, the pair’s highest since August 5; the pair subsequently consolidated at 1.3149, climbing 0.85%.
Cable was likely to find support at 1.2871, the low of August 16 and resistance at 1.3349, the high of August 4.
The U.K. Office for National Statistics said retail sales rose 1.4% in June after a 0.9% the previous month. Analysts had expected retail sales to increase 0.2% last month.
Year-on-year, retail sales increased 5.9%, compared to June’s 4.3% gain which was revised from the initial reading of a 4.3% gain. Consensus had forecast a 4.2% rise.
Core retail sales, which exclude automobile sales, gained 1.5% last month, following a 0.9% drop in June. Analysts had expected core retail sales to increase 0.4% last month.
Meanwhile, the greenback remained under pressure after the minutes of the Fed’s July policy meeting, released on Wednesday, showed that policymakers were still divided over the need to raise interest rates this year.
"Some ... members anticipated that economic conditions would soon warrant taking another step in removing policy accommodation," the Fed said in the minutes.
However, several policymakers said they wanted to "leave their policy options open."
Sterling was also higher against the euro, with EUR/GBP declining 0.53% to 0.8613.