Friday’s Nationwide HPI supplied more fuel for the Pound, which is now aiming for 1.62. All in all, it was a succesful week for the British Pound, which sees major resistance at 1.67. A roundup of this last week of May.
British Indicators
Earlier this week, indicators were negative, but the Pound didn’t always react to them as expected.Here’s the initial outlook from the beginning of the week: Pound at New Ground – What’s Next? Now, let’s see what really happened:
- BBA Mortgage Approvals: They were somewhat disappointing, and rose only to 27.7K, less than 29.1K that was expected. Despite this, the Pound went higher. See my coverage: Pound at Higher Ground – The Road North is Open. But later on, the Pound retraced some of the gains, and took a dive under 1.60.
- CBI Realized Sales: Also disappointing. Although a fall was expected, -17 was bad. But the Pound went higher.
- GfK Consumer Confidence: Here, the figure was slightly under expectations, remaining at -27 instead of rising.
- Nationwide HPI saw an increase of 1.2% in prices of UK homes. This was a major surprise: expectations were for a fall of 0.9%, and this surprise fueled the Pound’s gains. GBP/USD now trades at 1.6153. It was already quite close to 1.62.
So, this week, the GBP/USD was more influenced from fluctuations in the US dollar than events related to the Pound. Only on Tuesday, the Pound stood out and made a gain when other currencies were stuck.
Friday’s move was in line with other currencies. Also EUR/USD, USD/CHF and other pairs went against the dollar. For a coverage of this crucial week for the greenback, read Dollar Retreats On All Fronts – Week’s Roundup.
Technical Outlook for the Pound
As aforementioned, major resistance for cable appears only at 1.67. Till then, the road is open. It seems that if nothing spectacular happens, the Pound will continue the upward trend.
Week by week, nice and steady, the road north is wide open.
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