GBPUSD Movement
On Friday, GBP marginally fell against the USD and closed at 1.5495, as strong US consumer sentiment data spurred fresh speculation on Fed’s pace of stimulus measures. Negative sentiment was also fuelled as lingering concern over a possible military strike on Syria reduced investors’ risk appetite for the risk-on, pound.
In the UK, seasonally adjusted nationwide housing prices rose 0.6% (MoM) during August, at par with market consensus and compared to a 0.9% rise registered in the earlier month. Meanwhile, consumer credit in the nation rose by £0.6 billion, meeting analysts’ expectation and following a revised rise of £0.4 billion seen in the earlier month. Separately, the Bank of England reported that mortgage approvals for house purchases in the nation rose to a level of 60.6 in July, surpassing market consensus for a rise to 59.0 and compared to a level of 58.2 registered in the earlier month.
In the Asian session, at GMT0300, the pair is trading at 1.5559, with the GBP trading 0.41% higher from Friday’s close. Earlier today, a report showed that, on a seasonally adjusted basis, the UK Hometrack housing prices edged up 0.4% (MoM) in August, compared to a 0.3% rise seen in the previous month.
The pair is expected to find support at 1.5493, and a fall through could take it to the next support level of 1.5426. The pair is expected to find its first resistance at 1.5595, and a rise through could take it to the next resistance level of 1.5630.
Trading trends in the pair today are expected to be determined by Markit manufacturing PMI data for the UK, scheduled to release later today.
The currency pair is trading above its 20 Hr and 50 Hr moving averages.
