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UK retail sales surprise – GBP/USD rises

Good news for the UK: retail sales continued rising in March, by 0.1%, better than expected. Core sales dropped by 0.4%, also slightly better than expected.  UK retail sales were expected to drop 0.4% in March after a surprising jump of 1.7% in February. Core sales (ex-fuel) carried expectations for a drop of 0.5%. Year over year, a rise of 3.8% was expected in the headline figure and the actual number is 4.2%.  It is important to note that February’s rise was revised to the downside, only 1.3% now. However, the overall y/y rise is still better than expected, and so is the most recent figure.

GBP/USD was slipping below 1.68 just before the release. The pair shot higher to 1.6828 before stabilizing above 1.68.– updates coming —

The BBA Mortgage Approvals number for March was also released at the same time. It was  predicted to to tick up from 47.6K to 48.9K.

Last month’s retail sales release triggered a nice pound rally.

Clear resistance appears at 1.6841, the recent multi-year high. Support is at 1.6772. For more, see the GBPUSD forecast.

Yohay Elam

Yohay Elam

Yohay Elam: Founder, Writer and Editor I have been into forex trading for over 5 years, and I share the experience that I have and the knowledge that I've accumulated. After taking a short course about forex. Like many forex traders, I've earned a significant share of my knowledge the hard way. Macroeconomics, the impact of news on the ever-moving currency markets and trading psychology have always fascinated me. Before founding Forex Crunch, I've worked as a programmer in various hi-tech companies. I have a B. Sc. in Computer Science from Ben Gurion University. Given this background, forex software has a relatively bigger share in the posts.