Credit: Investing.com - The pound dipped against the dollar on Friday after investors avoided sterling on poor U.K. manufacturing numbers and looked past dismal U.S. jobs data for December.
In U.S. trading on Friday, GBP/USD was trading at 1.6475, down 0.04%, up from a session low of 1.6382 and off a high of 1.6509.
Cable was likely to find support at 1.6382, the earlier low, and resistance at 1.6604, Thursday's high.
Earlier Friday, data revealed that U.K. manufacturing production came in flat in November, disappointing expectations for a 0.4% rise after a downwardly revised 0.2% uptick the previous month.
The numbers softened the pound even after investors ditched the dollar on a weak U.S. December jobs report.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported earlier that the U.S. economy added 74,000 jobs in December, well below expectations for a 196,000 increase and below an upwardly revised 241,000 rise the previous month.
The U.S. private sector added 87,000 jobs last month, disappointing expectations for 195,000 rise, after an upwardly increase of 226,000 in November.
The report also showed that the U.S. unemployment rate fell to 6.7% in December due to a weak participation rate, down from 7.0% in November. Analysts had expected the rate to remain unchanged last month.
The numbers weakened the dollar by fueling expectations for the Federal Reserve to trim its USD75 billion monthly bond-buying program at a slower pace than once expected.
Fed asset purchases tend to weaken the dollar by suppressing long-term interest rates.
Still, sentiments began to build in the session that one disappointing jobs report may not be enough to prompt the Fed to overlook several weeks of positive data as it decides when to scale back asset purchases, which gave the dollar some support.
Sterling was lower against the euro, with EUR/GBP up 0.50% to 0.8297.
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The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
