New York--The pound climbed beyond the $1.50 barrier for the first time in six weeks Wednesday as the countdown continued toward British elections in just over two weeks with polls deadlocked.
The sterling pushed up to $1.5040 from $1.4931 late Tuesday, and also rose to 180.35 yen from 178.67.
Meanwhile the dollar-euro pairing was little changed in a market on pause for new economic information.
Boris Schlossberg of BK Asset Management said the pound's gain came on the back of the release of the minutes of the Bank of England's April 9 policy meeting, showing two of the nine monetary policy committee members leaning toward a rate hike.
The pound "stopped just short of the $1.5050 level in active London trade as pound shorts were squeezed mercilessly throughout the morning," he said.
"Still, the $1.5000 barrier has proven to be a formidable resistance over the past month, and with UK elections still a big unknown, further upside in the pair may be limited."
2100 GMT Wednesday Tuesday
EUR/USD 1.0725 1.0735
EUR/JPY 128.58 128.42
EUR/CHF 1.0417 1.0251
EUR/GBP 0.7131 0.7190
USD/JPY 119.89 119.63
USD/CHF 0.9713 0.9550
GBP/USD 1.5040 1.4931
AFP
