Sterling hit a six-week low against the dollar on Wednesday, knocked by a drop in the euro and by worse than expected UK trade data in the previous session. The dollar lost ground only briefly before shooting up against major currencies after a new record U.S. trade deficit on Wednesday, reflecting increasingly positive investor sentiment towards the U.S. currency. "Yesterday we had the trade data from the UK which certainly knocked sterling," said Jane Foley, currency strategist at Barclays Capital. "But really the fact that euro/dollar has failed to go up and has gone lower since the U.S. trade data has been the trigger."
The pound dropped rapidly, losing more than a cent in the space of a few minutes to a low of $1.8082 , its worst showing since January 30. Sterling also approached the previous session's four week lows against the euro, falling as far as 67.71 pence . The pound has now lost more than 10 cents against the dollar from 11-year highs set last month, as investors started to bet the dollar's two-year downtrend is over.///