Credit: Forexpros - The pound remained down against the broadly stronger U.S. dollar on Thursday, as Japan's intervention in currency markets to weaken the yen boosted the greenback.
GBP/USD hit 1.6286 during U.S. morning trade, the daily low; the pair subsequently consolidated at 1.6307, tumbling 0.73%.
Cable was likely to find support at 1.6223, Tuesday's low and an eight-day low and resistance at 1.6474, the high of August 1 and a two-month high.
The dollar rose against all of its major counterparts earlier, after Japanese authorities stepped into currency markets for the first time since March to curb the yen's gains, amid concerns that the currency's appreciation would hinder the largely export-based economy's recovery from a downturn sparked by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.
In addition, the Bank of Japan announced additional monetary easing to support the Finance Ministry's intervention to weaken the yen.
The pound was largely unchanged after the Bank of England maintained the benchmark interest rate at 0.50% earlier and said it was holding the stock of asset purchases financed by the issuance of central bank reserves at GBP200 billion.
The minutes of the meeting of the bank's monetary policy committee will be published on Wednesday, August 17.
Meanwhile, the pound was higher against the euro, with EUR/GBP shedding 0.64% to hit 0.8661.
Also Thursday, official data showed that the number of people who filed for unemployment assistance in the U.S. last week fell unexpectedly.
The Labor Department said the number of individuals filing for initial jobless benefits in the week ending July 29 fell by 1,000 to a seasonally adjusted 400,000, confounding expectations for an increase to 406,000.
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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.
