The pound makes up over a cent vs the dollar on rising oil prices

Sterling posted gains of over a cent against the greenback yesterday as rising oil prices weakened the dollar.

• Data showed that the level of US crude oil inventories fell last week, which weakened the dollar as prices rose, enabling the pound to regain losses made on Tuesday.
  
• Additionally, the pound traded strongly on the back of improved construction sector data despite weaker global equities, which remained under pressure yesterday as concern lingered that the summer rally on world stock markets had proceeded too quickly.
  
• Sterling strengthened further in the afternoon, having hit a 1.6115 intra-week low early on, as the US non-farm productivity revised figure posted the largest increase since 2003.
  
• The 6.6% reading was revised up from 6.4% encouraging investors to leave the safety of the dollar, to close the day at 1.6258.
  
• In trading so far this morning, the pound has continued to gain, already surpassing the 1.63 mark.
  
• In the US today, forecasters are predicting a slight reduction in employment claims, with data being released at 13:30BST. US non-manufacturing PMI are also released at 15:00BST.