- GBP/USD caught some aggressive bids on Thursday and rallied around 150 pips intraday.
- The emergence of some fresh USD selling was seen as a key factor fueling the momentum.
- The disappointing release of the US jobless claims data aggravate the USD bearish pressure.
The USD remained depressed through the early North American session and pushed the GBP/USD pair to fresh 34-month tops, around the 1.3985 region post-US macro releases.
Having found some support near 200-hour SMA, the pair caught some aggressive bids on Thursday and has now rallied nearly 150 pips from daily swing lows, near the 1.3840 region. The strong intraday momentum was exclusively sponsored by the emergence of some fresh selling around the US dollar.
The recent selloff in the US Treasuries stalled after Wednesday’s dovish sounding FOMC meeting minutes, which revealed that the Fed will maintain its ultra-accommodative policy stance. A modest pullback in the US Treasury bond yields was seen as one of the key factors undermining the USD.
The intraday US selling bias picked up pace following the release of US Initial Weekly Jobless Claims, which unexpectedly jumped to 861K. This was worse than consensus estimates pointing to a fall to 765K. Adding to this, the previous week’s reading was also revised higher from 793K to 848K.
Separately, the Philly Fed Manufacturing Index came in at 23.1 for February as the expected fall to 20 from 26.5 previous. This, however, did little to impress the USD bulls or stall the GBP/USD pair’s strong move up to the highest level since April 2018, closer to the key 1.4000 psychological mark.
Meanwhile, technical indicators on short-term charts are already flashing slightly overbought conditions. This, in turn, warrants some near-term consolidation or a modest pullback before bullish traders position for an extension of the ongoing/well-established upward trajectory.
Technical levels to watch
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