GBP/USD holding steady with minor gains, around mid-1.2900s
|The GBP/USD pair traded with a mild positive bias through Asian session on Tuesday and reversed part of yesterday's corrective slide from the key 1.30 psychological mark.
Currently hovering around mid-1.2900s, the pair benefitted from a sharp rise in the British Retail Consortium Like-for-like Sales data for April 2017, coming-in at 5.6% y-o-y as compared to -1.0% in March. Adding to this, a subdued greenback price-action, with the key US Dollar Index holding steady around the 99.00 handle, also collaborated to the bid tone surrounding the major.
Further upside, however, remained capped amid growing prospects for an eventual Fed rate-hike action, as early as at its June meeting, which is being reaffirmed by continuous up-surge in the US treasury bond yields.
Meanwhile, last week's upbeat PMI reports underscored a solid British economy, despite continuing jitters over impending Brexit negotiations, and hence, the pair defying broad based greenback strength and extending its near-term upward trajectory remains a distinct possibility.
Later during the NA session, the release of JOLTS job openings data from the US would be looked upon for some trading impetus. However, major focus would be on this week's major event risk - the BoE's Super-Thursday, which should assist investors to determine the pair's next leg of directional move.
Technical levels to watch
Immediate resistance is pegged near 1.2980 level, above which the pair is likely to surpass the 1.30 handle and head towards testing its next important hurdle near 1.3040 region. On the downside, weakness below 1.2930 level (yesterday's low) is likely to find support near the 1.2900 handle, which if broken would negate any near-term bullish bias and trigger a near-term corrective slide.
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