GBP/USD grappling to stay above 1.29 as US NFP Friday looms ahead

Pressured Sterling giving up ground to a rising Greenback.
It's NFP week, and any market moves ahead of Friday's major US jobs report will be short-lived.

Joshua Gibson FXStreet

The GBP/USD is trading into 1.2930 ahead of London's Thursday market session, trading firmly into this week's lows following another run-up in the US Dollar's favour across the broader markets.

Thursday's London markets are set to be a thin affair, with little on the calendar and traders weary from giant swings in sentiment regarding Brexit, and Sterling bulls are struggling to pick themselves up off the floor as the GBP/USD chart looks set to mark in a second week of declines.

It's Non-Farm Payrolls week in the US, and traders will be buckling down ahead of the major event, though the Thursday US session will be bringing US Jobless Claims and August's Factory Orders at 12:30 GMT and 14:00 GMT respectively, which could spark further movement in the Dollar Index as traders jostle for position ahead of NFP Friday.

GBP/USD levels to watch

The Pound's technical stance remains heavily slanted into the bearish camp, with the downside continuing to open up as markets have a harder and harder time trying to scrape together a reason to bid up the GBP, as noted by FXStreet's own Valeria Bednarik: "as for the technical perspective, the pair retains the bearish tone, as the intraday attempts to regain the upside were contained by a bearish 20 SMA which maintains its bearish slope below a directionless 200 EMA, this last around 1.3035, with the risk skewed to the downside as long as below this last. Technical indicators in the mentioned chart remain in negative territory with modest downward slopes, lacking enough directional strength to confirm additional slides ahead. A slide through the daily low should favor a downward extension aimed to 1.2880, the 61.8% retracement of the 2016/18 rally."

Support levels: 1.2960 1.2920 1.2880

Resistance levels: 1.3035 1.3065 1.3100

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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