GBP/USD holding above 1.2800 ahead of UK budget speech, US consumer spending data

The GBP/USD is trading softly up in early Monday trading, testing the waters near 1.2830 ahead of a tense day that sees the latest annual budget speech from the UK's Chancellor of the Exchequer.

Monday is slated to see the latest Annual Budget from the Exchequer Chancellor Phillip Hammond, and the chancellor is expected to unveil key details from the UK's budgetary outlook, somewhere around 15:30 GMT, and traders are tensing ahead of the report in case Hammond plays too many safe cards and focuses too much on the possibility of further extending the UK's austerity measures, as well as planned funding solutions in the face of a potential no-deal Brexit.

Elsewhere on the docket will be UK Mortgage Approvals at 09:30 GMT, expected to decline from the previous reading of 66.44 thousand to 64.75 thousand, but the headier reading for the day will be the US Consumption Expenditure reading at 12:30 GMT, which is expected to clock in at 2%, in-line with the previous figure, for the year into September.

GBP/USD levels to watch

Downside pressure can be expected to mount for the Cable as the pair continues to see declines broad-base against a framework of continued Brexit-bearish headlines, and as noted by FXStreet's own Mario Blascak, PhD: "Technically, the GBP/USD is moving in a downward sloping trend framed by last week’s high of 1.3238 and Monday’s high of 1.3091. After falling sharply on Monday towards 1.2940, the GBP/USD recovered on Brexit optimism on Tuesday just to fall back to October lows on Wednesday and fell further down on Thursday and Friday. The technical oscillators including Momentum and the Relative Strength Index both turned higher in the neutral territory on a daily chart. The Slow Stochastics made a move deeply into the bullish territory with swing upwards being the most probable move. After the GBP/USD fell past price target of 1.2920 and fell below 1.2800 to reach a 7week low, the pressure on falling further towards 2018 low of 1.2662 will mount."