GBP/USD back into familiar levels as Brexit hangs over the Sterling

The Pound continues to trade sideways against the Greenback as Brexit headlines continue to deflate bulls' attempts.
A speech from the BoE's Carney is expected to get exclipsed by US economic figures due later today.

Joshua Gibson FXStreet

The GBP/USD is trading roughly near 1.3150 after slipping further away from Wednesday's highs just above the 1.3200 technical level; A US Federal Reserve rate hike helped to shock the US Dollar temporarily and push the Cable pairing into a fresh high for the week, but broader sentiment continues to lean into the Greenback's favour, and the Pound remains trapped near levels that have populated its chart for nearly two weeks.

Thursday brings a speech by the Bank of England's (BoE) Governor Mark Carney, who is expected around 14:00 GMT, but after the US Fed's as-expected showing in the markets on Wednesday, today is similarly all about the USD, with final annualized US GDP at 12:30 GMT (forecast 4.2%, last 4.2%) as well as Core Personal Consumption Expenditure (forecast 2%, last 2%), and Carney's speech finds itself bookended by US data, with Fed President Jerome Powell expected to begin speaking at 20:30 GMT.

Brexit headlines continue to run their course through the week, with Prime Minister Theresa May trying to find room to stand between hard-line Eurosceptics threatening to sabotage any agreements she manages to pen with EU leaders, and the EU leaders themselves giving little to no quarter to the beleaguered PM in trade negotiations.

GBP/USD levels to watch

Bullish attempts by Pound bidders are quickly running out of gas, and as FXStreet's own Valeria Bednarik noted: "technically, the pair is stuck to the 50% retracement of the 2016/18 rally, and the 4 hours chart shows that it managed to hold above a now mild positive 20 SMA. Technical indicators in the mentioned chart, are losing upward momentum within positive territory, somehow suggesting that speculative interest is not ready to take over the 1.3200 figure. Nevertheless, the pair posted a higher high and a higher low for a third consecutive day, which means that sellers are not interested at the time being. Brexit headlines will likely continue to set the tone for Sterling over the upcoming days."

Support levels: 1.3125 1.3090 1.3055

Resistance levels: 1.3215 1.3260 1.3300

Author

Joshua Gibson

FXStreet

Joshua joins the FXStreet team as an Economics and Finance double major from Vancouver Island University with twelve years' experience as an independent trader focusing on technical analysis.

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