The British pound continued to be strong against the other major currencies in the Asian session on Wednesday, as traders look ahead to the release of U.K. employment report for June, due later in the day.

The Office for National Statistics is set to publish U.K. jobs data for June at 4:30 am ET. Economists expect the jobless claims to decline to 9,000, down from 6,500 in May. The unemployment rate is seen remaining unchanged at 5.5 percent in three months to May. The average weekly earnings excluding bonus is expected to rise to 3.0 percent in three months to May, up from 2.7 percent.

Traders await the Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen's testimony on the Semiannual Monetary Policy Report before the House Financial Services Committee, in Washington DC, to get more cues about the tightening of monetary policy.

Meanwhile, Asian stock markets were mostly higher, following the overnight gains on Wall Street. Better-than-expected Chinese GDP data also boosted investor sentiment.

The world's second-largest economy grew 7.0 percent on year in the second quarter of 2015, China's National Bureau of Statistics said on Wednesday. That beat forecasts for an increase of 6.8 percent and was unchanged from the three months prior. On an annualized quarterly basis, China's GDP was up 1.7 percent, which also beat forecasts for 1.6 percent following the 1.4 percent gain in the first quarter.

Tuesday, the pound rebounded from its losses after the Bank of England governor Mark Carney remarked that timing of the U.K. rate hike is getting closer, given the performance of the economy. The pound rose 0.30 percent against the U.S. dollar, 0.31 percent against the yen, 0.14 percent against the Swiss franc and 0.87 percent against the euro.

Meanwhile, the BoE's Monetary Policy Committee member David Miles said on Tuesday that the there should be a rate hike soon. There is no need to wait for the U.S. Federal Reserve to move first, he added. In the Asian trading today, the pound rose to more than 2-week highs of 0.7025 against the euro and 193.22 against the yen, from yesterday's closing quotes of 0.7037 and 192.87, respectively. If the pound extends its uptrend, it is likely to find resistance around 0.69 against the euro and 197.00 against the yen.

Against the Swiss franc and the U.S. dollar, the pound advanced to nearly a 2-week high of 1.4801 and a 2-week high of 1.5653 from yesterday's closing quotes of 1.4769 and 1.5634, respectively. The pound may test resistance around 1.49 against the franc and 1.59 against the greenback.

Looking ahead, U.K. unemployment data for May and Swiss ZEW survey results for July are due to be released in the European session.

In the New York session, Canada manufacturing sales for May, U.S. PPI and industrial production for June are slated for release.

The Bank of Canada's interest rate decision is due to be released at 10:00 am ET. Economists expect the bank to retain interest rates unchanged at 0.70 percent. Subsequently, Bank of Canada Governor Stephen Poloz holds a news conference on the monetary policy report at 11:15 am ET in Ottawa, Canada.

At 10:00 am ET, Yellen delivers semi-annual testimony on monetary policy before the House Financial Services Committee in Washington D.C.

At 12:25 pm ET, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland President Loretta Mester will deliver a speech on the economic outlook and participates in a live interview before the Columbus Metropolitan Club Forum in Columbus U.S.

At 2:00 pm ET, Federal Reserve will release the Beige Book of economic conditions.

After an hour, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco President John Williams is expected to speak about the economic outlook at the Mesa Chamber of Commerce in Phoenix, Arizona.

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