On Thursday, the GBP/USD currency pair fell from Wednesday’s highs of about 1.2301 to trade at about 1.2201 after the latest UK data—the currency pair trades within a slightly ascending channel formation in the 60-minute chart.
The pair has now fallen to trade at the 100-hour moving average line. However, the currency pair still has a lot of 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 Thursday, the U.S. retail sales for December missed the expected (MoM) change of 0.6% with a change of 0.4%. The retail sales ex-autos were in line with the estimate of 0.4%, while the retail sales control group increased by 0.7%, versus a change of 0.4% in the previous period.
On the other hand, the Philadelphia Fed Manufacturing Survey for January improved to 44.5, up from -10.9 in December, beating the forecasted reading of -5, while the initial jobless claims for the week ending January 10 increased to 217k, up from 203k in the preceding week missing the forecasted claim count of 210k.
In the UK, the gross domestic product for November missed the expected (MoM) change of 0.2% with a change of 0.1%. The industrial production for the month also fell short of 0.1% with a (MoM) change of -0.4%, while the Manufacturing production for the period failed to match the estimate of 0% with a change of -0.3% (MoM). Traders will be looking forward to the UK retail sales data on Friday.
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 rallying into the overbought conditions.
Therefore, the bears will look to extend the current pullback towards 1.2150 or lower to 1.2099. On the other hand, the bulls will look to ride the current rally towards 1.2251 or higher to 1.2301.
GBP/USD Technical Analysis (the Daily Chart)
In the daily chart, the GBP/USD currency pair trades within a descending channel formation. The 14-day RSI also supports a long-term bearish bias as it moves closer to the oversold conditions.
Therefore, the bears will look to ride the current run of declines toward 1.1913 or lower to 1.1637. On the other hand, the bulls will look to pounce on rebounds at about 1.2503 or higher to 1.2795.