On Thursday, the GBP/USD currency pair pulled back from the session highs of about 1.2966 to trade at about 1.2940. The currency pair trades within a descending channel formation in the 60-minute chart.
The pair has now plummeted to trade closer to the 100-hour moving average line. However, the currency pair still has 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 trades during a relatively busy period in the U.S. market. On Thursday, the U.S. initial jobless claims for the week ending March 7 came in lower than expected with 220k versus a forecast of 225k, down from the preceding week’s equivalent of 222k.
On the other hand, the producer price index for February missed the (MoM) expectation of 0.3% with a change of 0%. The (YoY) equivalent also fell short of 3.3% with 3.2%. The producer price index ex-food and energy failed to match the (MoM) and (YoY) forecasts of 0.3% and 3.5%, respectively, reporting actual figures of -0.1% and 3.4%.
Earlier in the week, the U.S. consumer price index for February missed the (MoM) and (YoY) forecasts of 0.3% and 2.9%, respectively, with 0.2% and 2.8%. The consumer price index ex-food and energy also fell short of 0.3% (MoM) and 3.2% (YoY), with actual figures of 0.2% and 3.1%, respectively.
JOLTS job openings for January exceeded expectations of 7.63 million with 7.74 million. In the UK, the BRC Like-for-Like retail sales for February missed the expected (YoY) change of 2.4% with a change of 0.9%.
GBP/USD Technical Analysis (the 60-min Chart)
Technically, the GBP/USD currency pair trades within a descending channel formation in the 60-minute chart. However, the 14-hour RSI still has room left to run before reaching the oversold conditions.
Therefore, the bears will be looking to extend the current pullback towards 1.2912 or lower to 1.2881. On the other hand, the bulls will look to pounce on rebounds at about 1.2966 or higher at 1.2998.
GBP/USD Technical Analysis (the Daily Chart)
In the daily chart, the GBP/USD currency pair trades within an ascending channel formation. The 14-day RSI also supports a long-term bullish bias as it edges closer to the overbought conditions.
Therefore, the bulls will look to ride the current run of gains toward 1.3046 or higher to 1.3178. On the other hand, the bears will look to pounce on pullbacks at about 1.2823 or lower at 1.2698.