LONDON: Sterling edged lower against the dollar but traded close to a more than six-week peak on Monday after poor US jobs data last week continued to fuel worries about a US economic recovery and weigh on the dollar. The pound however, could struggle to make any significant gains from here given the British economy's own dismal performance and threats of another recession. The dollar slipped on Friday after the US economy added a mere 88,000 jobs in March, far less than the 200,000 forecast by economists, in a sign government austerity measures were probably hurting US growth. Sterling, was trading down 0.1 percent against the dollar at $1.5320, not far from $1.5364, its highest since Feb. 20, hit on Friday after the jobs data, Traders cited stop-loss sell orders at the $1.5350 level, which could act as near-term resistance and also that some buyers could emerge if sterling slips to $1.5280 and below. The pound's gains could well be short-lived as the risk of further monetary easing by the Bank of England to prevent its economy from slipping into its third recession in less than five years, still persists. "Sterling seems to have recovered a bit from the heavy selling we saw last quarter, but it doesn't feel like it is going to go to the moon and reverse all its losses," said Lee McDarby, head of dealing for corporate and institutional treasury at Investec. The BoE opted to keep interest rates and its quantitative easing programme on hold last Thursday, but many market players expect further easing from the central bank once new governor Mark Carney takes the helm in July. "Whenever Carney's name is mentioned we tend to see pound struggle a little bit. When he takes over as BoE governor we might see sterling fall a bit," McDarby said. Analysts also said the pound could slip if the BoE minutes released next week show any of the Monetary Policy Committee members shifting camp to join the three members who voted for more quantitative easing over the last two months. Although sterling gained some support from Japanese investors looking for higher-yielding assets after the Bank of Japan announced aggressive easing measures, many analysts said the outlook remained clouded. "We see little reason for sterling/dollar to break back above $1.55, so would see any level above 1.54 as a good selling area," analysts at Lloyds said in a note. Rating's agency Standard and Poor's warned Britain on Friday that poor economic performance and slow progress in fixing its budget deficit could cost it its top-notch credit rating. While S&P left the UK's AAA sovereign credit rating intact it kept the outlook at negative. The euro was up 0.2 percent against sterling at 84.90 pence, holding above Monday's 2-1/2 month low of 84.11 pence.

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