GBP/USD Forecast: Seems poised to climb further beyond 1.4100 mark

The GBP/USD pair caught some aggressive bets on the last day of the week and broke out of a three-day-old trading range amid a broad-based US dollar selloff. The latest US monthly jobs report showed that the economy added only 266K new jobs in April as compared to consensus estimates pointing to a reading of nearly one million. Adding to this, the previous month's reading was also revised down to 770K from 916K reported earlier and the unemployment rate unexpectedly edged higher to 6.1% from 6.0% in March. The disappointing details reaffirmed market expectations that the Fed will keep interest rates low for a longer period and triggered some aggressive selling around the USD.

The pair posted strong weekly gains and built on the momentum beyond the key 1.4000 psychological mark during the Asian session on Monday. Bulls seemed rather unaffected by the Scottish Parliament election results, wherein Nicola Sturgeon’s SNP party won on 64 seats. Sturgeon said her priority was the pandemic but she still intended to hold an independence referendum once the crisis has passed. Nevertheless, the pair rallied to the highest level since February 25 and also shrugged off a modest USD rebound, supported by a goodish pickup in the US Treasury bond yields. This, in turn, supports prospects for additional gains amid absent relevant market moving economic releases.

Short-term technical outlook

Even from a technical perspective, sustained breakthrough the 1.4000 mark adds credence to the near-term positive outlook. Hence, Hence, a subsequent strength back towards reclaiming the 1.4100 mark, en-route 2021 daily closing highs resistance near the 1.4135-40 region, looks a distinct possibility.

On the flip side, any meaningful pullback might now be seen as a buying opportunity and remain limited near the 1.4000 strong resistance breakpoint. That said, sustained weakness below might prompt some technical selling and turn the pair vulnerable to slide back to test sub-1.3900 level. Some follow-through selling would expose intermediate support near the 1.3860-50 region before the pair eventually drops to the 1.3800 round-figure mark.