The GBP/USD currency pair on Thursday pulled back Off the session highs of about 1.2808 to trade at about 1.2785. The currency pair continues to trade within an ascending channel formation in the 60-minute chart.
Thursday’s pullback pushed the currency pair lower close to the 100-hour moving average line. However, the pair still seems to have more room left to run before reaching the oversold levels of the 14-hour RSI.
GBP/USD Fundamentals Overview
From a fundamental perspective, the GBP/USD currency pair is trading at the back of a relatively busy period in both markets. On Thursday, the US initial jobless claims for the week ending May 31 missed the expected claim count of 220k with a significantly higher tally of 229k. The continuing claims for the preceding week also fell short of the forecasted claim count of 1.79 million with a slightly higher tally of 1.792 million.
Nonfarm productivity for Q1 outperformed the expected change of 0.1% with a change of 0.2%, while unit labour costs missed the forecasted change of 4.9% with a change of 4%.
On Wednesday, the ADP Employment Change failed to match the expected change of 178k with a tally of 152k. The ISM Services PMI for May outshone the forecasted reading of 50.8 with a reading of 53.8, while the S&P Global Composite PMI for the period beat 54.4 with 54.5.
In the UK, the S&P Global/CIPS Construction PMI for May beat the expectation of 52.5 with a reading of 54.7. The S&P Global/CIPS composite PMI also outshone the estimate of 52.8 with a reading of 53. Earlier in the week, the BRC Like-for-Like retail sales for May missed the (YoY) forecast of 1.2% with a change of 0.4%.
GBP/USD Technical Analysis (the 60-min Chart)
Technically, the GBP/USD currency pair appears to be trading within an ascending channel formation in the 60-minute chart. However, the 14-hour RSI has recently pulled back to move closer to oversold conditions.
Therefore, the bears will be targeting extended declines at about 1.2763 or lower at 1.2740. On the other hand, the bulls will look to pounce on rebounds at about 1.2808 or higher at 1.2831.
GBP/USD Technical Analysis (the Daily Chart)
In the daily chart, the GBP/USD currency pair appears to be trading within an ascending channel formation. The 14-day RSI also seems to support a long-term bullish bias as it edges closer to overbought conditions.
Therefore, the bulls will be targeting long-term gains at about 1.2862 or higher at 1.2943. On the other hand, the bears will look to pounce on pullbacks at about 1.2702 or lower at 1.2613.