British Pound slides as US yields spike, UK jobs market cracks

US 10-year yield hits 16-month peak on inflation fears.
UK payrolls drop 100K as unemployment rises to 5%.
Starmer leadership pressure deepens as Burnham eyes challenge.

Christian Borjon Valencia FXStreet

The British Pound (GBP) retreats by 0.31% during the North American session as the US Dollar (USD) rises, underpinned by soaring US Treasury yields as investors price in a spike in inflation from the energy shock. The GBP/USD pair trades at 1.3392 after reaching a daily high of 1.3437.

GBP/USD slips as inflation fears lift US Dollar and yields

Geopolitical matters and their impact are driving the financial markets. High energy prices due to Iran’s war prompted investors to increase risk premiums in the bond market, with the US 10-year Treasury note reaching a 16-month peak of 4.687% as traders priced in a Federal Reserve (Fed) rate hike towards the end of the year.

The US crude Oil benchmark, West Texas Intermediate (WTI), is up 0.79% to $103.29 a barrel, even though US President Donald Trump is optimistic about reaching a deal with Tehran. On Monday, he posted that he would not proceed with an attack against Iran on Tuesday, due to its allies pushing to strike a deal.

Nevertheless, Iran’s proposal has not changed from its previous offer, in which it delayed discussions on uranium enrichment.

The US economic docket was absent, with traders eyeing the release of the minutes of the Fed’s last monetary policy meeting, led by the outgoing Chair Jerome Powell. On Friday, Kevin Warsh will be sworn in as the new Chief of the US central bank.

In the UK, payroll data showed employment dropped by 100K from March to April, while previous months were revised lower. The Unemployment Rate rose from 4.9% to 5%.

Political turmoil in Great Britain is pressuring Sterling as Prime Minister Keir Starmer fights to retain the Labour Party leadership. The Greater Manchester Mayor, Andy Burnham, is seeking a seat in parliament to challenge Starmer.

Ahead this week, the UK economic docket will feature April inflation data, expected to dip from 3.1% to 2.6% YoY.

GBP/USD Price Forecast: Technical outlook

In the daily chart, GBP/USD trades at 1.3394, holding just under a cluster of simple moving averages (SMAs) near 1.3429 that now cap the upside and keep the near-term bias tilted bearish. Price is also testing a descending resistance trend line, suggesting rallies remain fragile, while the Relative Strength Index (RSI) at 43.6 leans toward weak momentum rather than oversold conditions, hinting that sellers still retain the upper hand unless the pair can reclaim the overhead averages.

On the topside, immediate resistance is located at the confluent 50-day, 100-day and 200-day SMAs clustered around 1.3429, where any daily close above would ease the current downside pressure and open the door to a broader recovery attempt. On the downside, the absence of clearly defined nearby support levels from the provided indicators implies that a failure to hold the 1.3390 area could see GBP/USD extending its slide toward prior swing lows on the chart, leaving short-term risks skewed to further weakness while it remains capped beneath the moving average cluster.

(The technical analysis of this story was written with the help of an AI tool.)

Pound Sterling Price Today

The table below shows the percentage change of British Pound (GBP) against listed major currencies today. British Pound was the strongest against the Australian Dollar.

	USD	EUR	GBP	JPY	CAD	AUD	NZD	CHF
USD		0.51%	0.27%	0.18%	0.17%	1.08%	0.79%	0.69%
EUR	-0.51%		-0.24%	-0.33%	-0.33%	0.59%	0.30%	0.19%
GBP	-0.27%	0.24%		-0.09%	-0.11%	0.80%	0.55%	0.43%
JPY	-0.18%	0.33%	0.09%		-0.02%	0.88%	0.62%	0.50%
CAD	-0.17%	0.33%	0.11%	0.02%		0.90%	0.62%	0.52%
AUD	-1.08%	-0.59%	-0.80%	-0.88%	-0.90%		-0.26%	-0.38%
NZD	-0.79%	-0.30%	-0.55%	-0.62%	-0.62%	0.26%		-0.11%
CHF	-0.69%	-0.19%	-0.43%	-0.50%	-0.52%	0.38%	0.11%

The heat map shows percentage changes of major currencies against each other. The base currency is picked from the left column, while the quote currency is picked from the top row. For example, if you pick the British Pound from the left column and move along the horizontal line to the US Dollar, the percentage change displayed in the box will represent GBP (base)/USD (quote).

Author

Christian Borjon Valencia

FXStreet

Markets analyst, news editor, and trading instructor with over 14 years of experience across FX, commodities, US equity indices, and global macro markets.

GBP/USD turns negative; slips back to 1.3530

GBP/USD comes under pressure and weakens toward the 1.3530 zone on Tuesday. Cable thus leaves behind two daily upticks in a row and retreats further from Monday’s multi-week tops past 1.3570 following humble gains in the Greenback and disheartening UK jobs data.

EUR/USD comes under pressure near 1.1570

EUR/USD could not sustain the earlier bullish attempt toward the proximity of 1.1600 the figure, coming under fresh downside pressure and revisiting the 1.1580-1.1570 band as the NA session draws to a close on Tuesday. The better tone in the US Dollar in the latter part of the day weighs on the pair amid steady volatility in the Middle East. Looking forward, the release of the FOMC Minutes takes centre stage on Wednesday.

Gold remains offered around $4,350

Gold accelerates its daily correction and revisits the $4,350 zone per troy ounce on Tuesday. The precious metal sets aside two daily advances in a row and follows the absence of direction in the US Dollar, declining US Treasury yields across the curve and continuous uncertainty in the Middle East crisis.

Bitcoin volatility falls below Nasdaq as market activity hits multi-year low

Bitcoin’s 30-day volatility has fallen below that of the Nasdaq for only the fifth time on record, as subdued trading activity and declining volumes point to an unusually quiet period, according to a Tuesday report from K33. BTC's 30-day volatility has dropped to 1.132%, marking its fourth-lowest reading of the 2020s. Seven-day volatility also dropped to 0.52%, its lowest level since 2023.

Fiscal concerns and doubts on Fed independence send US yields to long-term highs

US Treasury yields keep rising across the curve this week, with the yield for the 30-year Treasury bond reaching its highest level since 2007, during the global financial crisis, at 5.33% so far on Monday. A mix of concerns about the ballooning US fiscal deficit and growing doubts about the Federal Reserve’s Independence are increasing pressure on US Government Bonds.

Why is Crude Oil priced for a reopening the ships haven't made?

Fourteen vessels crossed the Strait of Hormuz on Tuesday. Before the war, the count ran near 120 a day. In the sessions since the waterway was publicly declared open, Brent has drifted back to $87 and West Texas Intermediate (WTI) to $81, both a little lower again on Wednesday, with daily momentum on each unwound from the top of its range in late July to the low twenties now.