Home GBP/USD bounces off intraday low to regain 1.3700, focus on vaccine jitteres, Gamestop and China
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GBP/USD bounces off intraday low to regain 1.3700, focus on vaccine jitteres, Gamestop and China

  • GBP/USD stays red despite recent bounce off 1.3695.
  • UK adds UAE, Burundi and Rwanda to its coronavirus travel ban list amid dip in the virus-led death toll, rise in infections.
  • British PM Johnson marks lots of Brexit teething problems, employers fear worse to come.
  • Trading restrictions, China’s warning to Taiwan and Novavax vaccine are extra catalysts to watch amid a light calendar day.

GBP/USD marks a corrective pullback from an intraday low of 1.3695 to 1.3706, down 0.20% on a day, while heading into the London open on Friday. The cable’s recent weakness could be traced from the broad risk-off mood amid economic fears, retail traders’ restrictions and China’s warning to Taiwan. Also, weighing on the quote could be the EU-UK tussle over the vaccine, Brexit woes and virus worries at home.

With the Gamestop saga far from over, global market players worry about further restrictions on retail trading and the mood sours. Recently, the private trading platform Robinhood said, per Bloomberg, that the firm is in constant communication with the regulators while also revealing issues while trading cryptocurrencies. Further, the US House Financial Services Committee is up for a hearing on short selling and online trading platforms while some more brokers joined the line of Robinhood to tame the volatility and speculations.

At home, Novavax’s 89.3% efficacy rate of covid vaccine and ability to tame the UK variant of the virus has mixed feelings as it couldn’t do well with the South African strains. Also, the same will add to the European Union’s (EU) tussle with Britain amid a lack of jabs at home and push to Britain for vaccine delivery.

It’s worth mentioning that the UK recently turned down direct flights from United Arab Emirates (UAE), Burundi and Rwanda as domestic cases jumped to 28,680. The move pays a little heed to the receding death toll from 1,725 to 1,239, reported by Reuters on Thursday.

Elsewhere, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson reiterated Brexit problems and disappointment of business in the fisheries sector. The Tory leader said, “Of course there are there are teething problems in lots of areas and that’s inevitable because this is a big change.”

Other than the aforementioned worries, China’s warning of war to Taiwan also weigh on risks as the US may have another reason to meddle with Beijing and the UK can intervene as well.

Amid these plays, stocks futures are red and the US 10-year Treasury yields stop the previous upside momentum above 1.0%. Though, the US dollar index (DXY) gains 0.20% due to the safe-haven demand of the greenback by press time.

Moving on, the second-tier data from the US, like personal income-spending and PMIs, could entertain traders but major attention should be given to the aforementioned risk catalysts.

Technical analysis

Despite recent weakness, the GBP/USD bulls are less likely to leave until prices stay above the 14-day-old support line, at 1.3640 now.

 

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