The pound reached a more than two- month high against the dollar as U.S. lawmakers remained deadlocked over a plan to raise the debt ceiling and before a report forecast to show U.K. factory orders fell in July. The pound also strengthened versus the euro. The orders gauge, based on a survey of manufacturers conducted by the Confederation of British Industry, probably fell to -3 in July, from a month earlier, according to a Bloomberg survey of 14 economists. Data showed yesterday that U.K. gross domestic product rose 0.2 percent in the second quarter, slowing from the previous three months’ 0.5 percent pace. The pound was little changed at $1.6415 as of 7:22 a.m. in London, after reaching $1.6439, the most since June 14. It strengthened 0.1 percent to 88.37 pence per euro and lost 0.3 percent to 127.49 yen. Bank of England policy maker David Miles is due to give a speech at the London School of Economics at 6:30 p.m. Sterling is still down 8.5 percent in the last 12 months, making it the second-worst performer among 10 developed-market currencies after the U.S. dollar, according to Bloomberg Correlation-Weighted Currency Indexes. To contact the reporter on this story: Emma Charlton in London at echarlton1@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Daniel Tilles at dtilles@bloomberg.net

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