- Sterling heads into Friday on notably weaker footing.
- The upcoming US NFP report will easily overshadow today’s UK Services PMI.
The GBP/USD is trading into 1.3020 just ahead of Friday’s London market session, after seeing declines on Thursday from above the 1.3100 level after the Bank of England (BoE) delivered a widely-expected 25 bps rate hike, but warned that interest rate hikes are likely to remain subdued for several years to come, causing markets to lose what little confidence in the GBP had been built up into the Sterling in the run-up to the BoE’s rate call.
Brexit concerns remain a constant drain on the Sterling, and negotiations are set to resume in several weeks with UK Prime Minister Theresa May at the helm after the UK’s Brexit minister resigned in protest over PM May’s latest Brexit proposal, which hard-line Brexiteers said gave up too much sovereignty to Europe, while European leaders also flatly rejected the proposal, leaving the UK back on square one in trying to secure a workable trade deal with the European Union before the official Brexit deadline of March 2019.
GBP/USD Technical Analysis
1.3000 remains the final barrier between GBP short-sellers and new lows for 2018, and a positive showing for the US NFP could see the US Dollar take a step up against the Pound. Bullish momentum remains limited, and the GBP/USD is already steeply off of the week’s highs near 1.3150.
GBP/USD Chart, 15-Minute
| Spot rate: | 1.3012 |
| Relative change: | Negligible |
| High: | 1.3022 |
| Low: | 1.3005 |
| Trend: | Bearish |
| Support 1: | 1.3005 (current week low) |
| Support 2: | 1.2956 (2018 low) |
| Support 3: | 1.2900 (major technical level) |
| Resistance 1: | 1.3084 (38.2% Fibo retracement level) |
| Resistance 2: | 1.3172 (current week high) |
| Resistance 3: | 1.3212 (previous week high) |
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