GBP/USD holds steady above 1.30 handle ahead of US data, vote on Brexit bill

The GBP/USD pair traded with a mild positive bias and held comfortably above the key 1.30 psychological mark through the mid-European session on Friday, albeit lacked any strong follow-through.

The pair showed some resilience below the mentioned handle and gained some positive traction on the last trading day of the week. The early uptick lacked any obvious fundamental catalyst and was solely led by some short-covering, especially after the recent sharp fall of over 500 pips from 19-month tops, touched in reaction to a landslide victory for the Conservative Party at the most important UK general elections.

Bulls preferred to stay on the sidelines

The British pound found some additional support from Friday's mostly upbeat UK macro data, showing that the economic growth during the third quarter of 2019 stood at 0.4% as compared to 0.3% estimated earlier. Adding to this, the UK current account deficit fell sharply to £15.9 billion during the July-September quarter from £24.2 billion deficit (revised lower from £25.2 billion reported earlier) recorded in the previous quarter

However, some renewed fears of a no-deal Brexit held investors from placing any aggressive bullish bets. This coupled with a goodish pickup in the US dollar demand, supported by an intraday upsurge in the US Treasury bond yields, further collaborated towards capping any strong gains for the major.

Investors further preferred to stay on the sidelines ahead of a vote on the UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson's revised Brexit bill. The result of the voting is expected to be out by around 15:00 GMT on Friday, which should play a key role in driving the sentiment surrounding the sterling.

In the meantime, the US economic docket, highlighting the release of the final version of the Q3 GDP growth figures might influence the USD price dynamics and further contribute towards producing some meaningful trading opportunities during the early North-American session.

Technical levels to watch