On Wednesday, the GBP/USD currency pair pulled back from the session highs of about 1.3709 to trade at about 1.3649. The currency pair trades within an ascending channel formation in the 60-minute chart.

The pair continues to trade slightly above the 100-hour moving average line, despite the latest pullback. 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 both markets. On Wednesday, in the UK, the BRC like-for-like retail sales for January outperformed the expectation of 1.2%, with a change of 2.3% (YoY). Looking forward, traders will be waiting for the UK’s gross domestic product data for December and the preliminary Q4 GDP, ahead of December’s industrial production and the manufacturing production data later in the day. 

In the U.S., the unemployment rate for January came in better than expected, with 4.3% versus a forecast of 4.4%, down from 4.4% in December. The US jobs data for the month also outperformed the expectation of 70k, with a tally of 130k, up from the previous month’s equivalent of 48k. The average hourly earnings for the month grew by 0.4% (MoM), beating the forecast of 0.3%. The (YoY) equivalent also exceeded the expectation of 3.6%, with a change of 3.7%. 

Earlier in the week, US retail sales for December missed the (MoM) expectation of 0.4, with a change of 0%. The retail sales ex-autos also fell short of 0.3%, with a change of 0% (MoM).

GBP/USD Technical Analysis (the 60-min Chart)

Technically, the GBP/USD currency pair trades within an ascending channel formation in the 60-minute chart. However, the 14-hour RSI has recently pulled back to avoid entering overbought conditions. 

Therefore, the bears will look to stretch the latest pullback towards 1.3587 or lower to 1.3512. On the other hand, the bulls will look to pounce on profits at about 1.3709 or higher at 1.3781.

GBP/USD Technical Analysis (the Daily Chart)

In the daily chart, the GBP/USD currency pair also trades within an ascending channel formation. The 14-day RSI has also pulled back to avoid rallying into overbought conditions.

Therefore, the bears will look to extend the current pullback towards 1.3413 or lower to 1.3174. On the other hand, the bulls will look to ride the current run of gains toward 1.3860 or higher to 1.4089.