FX round-up: Overall positive sterling slips against resurgent US dollar
Sterling put in an overall positive performance on key pairs thanks in part to better than expected UK construction activity, but slipped versus a resurgent US dollar.
At roughly 17:10 GMT, sterling was down 0.18% to $1.2271, but up 0.11% to €1.1669. The dollar-spot index was up 0.3% to $102.090.
SwissQuote said that hourly resistance for cable was at $1.2582, with support found in the area $1.2400.
"The long-term technical pattern is even more negative since the Brexit vote has paved the way for further decline," said SwissQuote in a research note.
UK is lumbering ever closer to Brexit, the vote last year to this effect triggering a sell-off in sterling, rising inflation and a deeply divided country.
Quitting the EU was again in focus after the House of Lords voted late Wednesday to amend the so-called Brexit Bill to include a guarantee for EU citizens living in the UK to stay after the country leaves the EU.
Sterling had enjoyed modest to firm gains against the commodity currencies of Australia, New Zealand, Canada and South Africa, which were affected by prospects of a US rate rise.
The greenback gained against all of these issues, too.
"It will be interesting if the dollar builds on its gains ahead of all the Fed speeches tomorrow," said Oanda senior market analyst Craig Erlam in a statement.
He added that this could continue to weigh on commodities and the related currencies such as the AUD, CAD and NZD.
This could potentially have a knock-on benefit for their sterling crosses, too. Several of these found support from Thursday's better than expected UK construction activity.
Turning to the dollar, Spreadex financial analyst Connor Campbell linked the dollar's activity in part to US jobless claims falling to a fresh 44 year low.
He said this had given the Fed another hawkish bit of data to chew over ahead of their next meeting in just less than a fortnight.
CMC Markets UK chief market analyst Michael Hewson commented that it appeared the stars were aligning for a 0.25% move on US interest rates in March.
"This change in the market view from a 36% possibility a week ago to 88% now would suggest that," he said in a statement.
"Any dialling back by Fed officials now would be enormously counterproductive in terms of how the market perceives any future market guidance this year."