Pound Hits USD1.64 After Jobs Data

The pound briefly popped it's head above USD1.64 this morning after UK unemployment numbers rose less than feared.

It's a sad state of affairs when the highest unemployment rate since 1971 is bullish, but there we have it.

The number of people claiming unemployment benefit rose 23,800 in June to 1.56 million.

Meanwhile UK unemployment itself rose by a record amount for the three months to May.

Not a tremendous amount of joy there, and no great signs that the UK economy is going to get better any time soon.

Of course, across the pond things are far from rosy either, the market will now turn its attention to assorted US data and earnings reports due later today.