GBP/USD trades steadily after home prices in UK drop

British pound traded little changed against the US dollar on Monday, after a report the property-website operator Rightmove Plc. showed that home prices in the United Kingdom decreased in November.

GBP/USD climbed to a session high at 1.6143 at 6:20 GMT, also the pairs highest point since October 29th, after which consolidation followed at 1.6134, rising 0.09% for the day. Support was likely to be received at November 15th low, 1.6049, while resistance was to be encountered at October 29th high, 1.6144.

According to a report by the property-website operator Rightmove, the average asking price for houses in the United Kingdom dropped 2.4% to reach 246 237 GBP in November compared to a month ago, after in October prices advanced 2.8%. On annual basis, prices of homes climbed 4.0% in November, after another 3.8% increase in October.

Bank of England (BoE) is scheduled to publish the minutes of its most recent meeting on policy on November 20th. At the meeting on November 7th the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) at BoE decided to leave the benchmark interest rate at the current record low level of 0.50% and the size of monthly monetary stimulus at 375 billion GBP.

Meanwhile, after its earlier advance on Friday, US dollar pared gains on the day, after it became evident that the Empire State manufacturing index dropped to a reading of -2.21 in November, marking its first negative value since May. In October the index came in at 1.52. Preliminary estimates pointed an increase to 5.00.

In addition, industrial output in the United States was reported to have unexpectedly decreased 0.1% in October compared to September, marking its first monthly drop since July, as sectors of mining and utility services contracted. Expectations pointed a 0.2% expansion in production during October.

Elsewhere, the pound was steady against the euro, with EUR/GBP cross gaining 0.06% on a daily basis to trade at 0.8379 at 9:39 GMT. It became clear that the seasonally adjusted surplus on Euro zones current account was at the amount of 13.7 billion EUR in September, short of expectations pointing a surplus of 18.3 billion EUR, while Augusts surplus has been revised up to 17.9 billion EUR from 17.4 billion EUR previously.

EUR/JPY pair was falling 0.15% for the day to trade at 135.02 at 9:47 GMT. The sterling has gained 3.2% during the past three months, or the best performing currency among the 10 developed-nation currencies, which are tracked by Bloomberg Correlation-Weighted Indexes. The euro has risen 1%, while the US dollar has decreased 0.4% during the same period.