Summary The pound climbed beyond the $1.50 barrier for the first time in six weeks Wednesday.
NEW YORK (AFP) - 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."
