British pound erased its earlier gains against the US dollar on Friday, but remained still supported by comments made by Ben Bernanke on Wednesday, which weighed on the greenback.
GBP/USD fell to a session low at 1.5116 at 9:37 GMT, after which consolidation followed at 1.5126, still down by 0.40% for the day. Support was expected at July 11th low, 1.5062, while resistance was to be encountered at July 4th high, 1.5283.
US dollar was put under heavy selling pressure, after on Wednesday Federal Reserve Bank Chairman Ben Bernanke said, that central bank’s policy should remain accommodative, even after the minutes of FED’s June meeting revealed that there were debates, regarding a possible exit to the stimulus program. According to FED minutes, half of the 19 members of FOMC voted in favor of terminating monthly asset purchases by the end of this year. However, some policymakers were not convenient with this idea, because, in their view, US labor market was in need of further improvement. Ben Bernanke stressed that the central bank will not consider an increase in the base interest rate, until Unemployment rate in the country falls as low as 6.5%.
Meanwhile, the euro remained almost unchanged against the British pound, as EUR/GBP added a mere 0.06% to 0.8631.