GBPUSD Movement
For the 24 hours to 23:00 GMT, GBP rose 0.97% against the USD and closed at 1.6044, after the Bank of England (BoE) Governor, Mark Carney, stated that economic recovery in Britain has “finally taken hold”, adding that “the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) now expects the 7% unemployment threshold to be reached earlier than it did in August.” Adding to the positive sentiment was BoE’s latest quarterly inflation report, which forecasted UK’s economy to grow 1.6% this year, up from its previous estimate of 1.4%, and 2.8% in the next year, rather than its earlier prediction of a 2.5% growth.
On the economic front, a report showed that the number of people in the UK claiming jobless benefits declined by 41,700 in October, more than market expectation for a decline of 35,000 and following a revised drop of 44,700 registered in the previous month. Meanwhile, the UK’s ILO unemployment rate dropped to 7.6% during the three months to September, compared to a level of 7.7% recorded in the previous month.
In the Asian session, at GMT0400, the pair is trading at 1.6030, with the GBP trading 0.09% lower from yesterday’s close.
The pair is expected to find support at 1.5916, and a fall through could take it to the next support level of 1.5802. The pair is expected to find its first resistance at 1.6106, and a rise through could take it to the next resistance level of 1.6182.
Later today, the National Statistics is scheduled to release a report on UK’s retail sales, which the market expects to rise 3.1% (YoY) in October, compared to a 2.2% rise recorded in the earlier month.
The currency pair is trading above its 20 Hr and 50 Hr moving averages.
