For the 24 hours to 23:00 GMT, GBP rose 0.53% against the USD and closed at 1.6562, after the National Statistics reported that the ILO unemployment rate in the UK declined to 7.1% in the three months to November, more than market expectations and compared to a level of 7.4% registered in the three months to October.
However, the gains were capped after the minutes of the Bank of England (BoE)’s latest policy meeting, revealed that the policy-makers’ did not see an immediate need to raise the interest rates, even if unemployment in the nation dropped to the threshold limit of 7%, in the near future. The minutes also showed that all the policy-makers unanimously voted in favour of maintaining the nation’s benchmark interest rate at 0.5% and quantitative easing at £375.0 billion.
In the Asian session, at GMT0400, the pair is trading at 1.6564, with the GBP trading tad higher from yesterday’s close.
The pair is expected to find support at 1.6480, and a fall through could take it to the next support level of 1.6396. The pair is expected to find its first resistance at 1.6618, and a rise through could take it to the next resistance level of 1.6672.
Later today, the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) is scheduled to release a report on the UK distributive trades survey for January, following the BoE MPC member, Paul Fisher’s speech.
The currency pair is showing convergence with its 20 Hr moving average and is trading above its 50 Hr moving average.
