FX round-up: MPC minutes boost pound

The pound reacted to a more hawkish set of MPC minutes in an otherwise lacklustre day in terms of newsworthy economic data.

According to the minutes of the 8 July policy meeting, “a number of members” on the MPC now saw the decision to keep policy unchanged as “finely balanced” as opposed to just two the last time they met.

“Support for a hike will likely continue to build as the year-end approaches, leading, we believe, to a hike in February 2016,” Barclays said in a research note e-mailed to clients.

That drove gains in cable of 0.38% to hit 1.5615 even in the face of much better than expected economic data out Stateside.

Euro/pound fell -0.47% to 0.6996.

Existing home sales jumped by 3.2% over the month in June in the US to reach an annualised pace of 5.49m units, according to the US Department of Commerce.

That led Barclays to lift its tracking estimate for second quarter US GDP growth to 3% from 2.5%.

Dollar/yen was up 0.12% to 123.99 by the end of trading while the Aussie gave back most of the previous day’s gains, retreating 0.61% to 0.7378.

Acting as a backdrop, the Greek parliament was set to vote on a second package of economic reforms in a bid to pave the way for the start of negotiations on the country's third bail-out.