Pound Sterling Price News and Forecast: GBP/USD kick-starts the key week by challenging bears around mid-April lows
|GBP/USD defends 1.3800 as covid, Brexit woes battle pre-BOE caution
GBP/USD bears take a breather around 1.3800, following the heaviest weekly fall since September 2020, amid a quiet Asian session on Monday. While the broad US dollar strength, mainly due to the Fed rate hike concerns, could be cited as the key catalyst behind the cable’s recent weakness, Brexit deadlock and a spike in the UK’s cases concerning Delta variant of the covid also weigh on the quote. Even so, the pair traders await this week’s Bank of England (BOE) meeting for fresh clues.
GBP/USD Forecast: Delta variant hurting the pound
The GBP/USD pair traded as low as 1.3791, its lowest since mid-April, ending the week a couple of pips above such a level. The pound fell for a fourth consecutive day, not only pressured by resurgent dollar demand but also by tepid UK data. On Friday, the country published May Retail Sales which were down 1.4% MoM, missing an expected 1.6% advance. Annual sales were up 24.6%, well below the previous 42.4%.
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