GBP/USD holds stable near 10-month highs post US data

The GBP/USD pair held on to the daily gains, just below 10-month high near 1.3160 region, and had a muted reaction to the US economic releases. 

Currently trading around 1.3140-45 region, the pair held stable after data released from the US showed durable goods orders rebounded sharply and came-in to show a strong growth of 6.5% in June. The reading was far better-than 0.1% drop reported in May (revised higher from -1.1% reported previously) and 3.0% expected.

Excluding transportations items, durable goods orders also matched expectations and recorded a slight lower than expected growth of 0.2% during the reported period, vs previous month's rise of 0.6% (also revised higher). 

Other data showed goods trade balance data shrank more than expected to $64 billion during June, from May's $66 billion, but to some extent got negated by a jump in initial jobless claims to 244K during the week ended July 21. 

Today’s relatively stronger US economic data remained supportive of the US Dollar’s post-FOMC recovery but did little to prompt traders unwind their bullish GBP bets, which remained underpinned by today’s UK CBI retail sales data, suggesting that the UK retail spending is recovering and might support further economic expansion in the second half of 2017.

Technical outlook

Valeria Bednarik, Chief Analyst at FXStreet writes, "the 4 hours chart shows that technical indicators have stabilized well above their mid-lines, losing upward strength, whilst the 20 SMA heads north below the current level, indicating that the risk remains towards the upside."

"The immediate support comes at 1.3090 with a break below it favoring a downward corrective movement towards 1.3040/50, en route to 1.3010" she added.