GBPUSD Movement
On Friday, GBP rose 0.44% against the USD and closed at 1.6485.
In the Asian session, at GMT0400, the pair is trading at 1.6479, with the GBP trading tad lower from Friday’s close.
This morning, data released by the property tracking website, Hometrack indicated that the average asking price for a house in the UK was up 0.5% (MoM) in December, after gaining 0.5% in November. On a yearly basis, house prices climbed 4.4% following the 3.8% increase in the previous month. Meanwhile, Hometrack further stated that house prices would continue to rise in 2014 as well, mainly due to the mismatch between supply and demand along with the impetus provided by the government’s Help to Buy program, which is aimed at helping homebuyers with small down payments, thereby fuelling fears that the current housing market conditions may lead to a new property bubble.
The pair is expected to find support at 1.6415, and a fall through could take it to the next support level of 1.6352. The pair is expected to find its first resistance at 1.6561, and a rise through could take it to the next resistance level of 1.6644.
Going forward, the manufacturing and construction PMI reports and important consumer credit data to be released during the week would gain considerable market interest to track trends for the British Pound.
The currency pair is trading between its 20 Hr and 50 Hr moving averages.
