GBP/USD jumps to fresh weekly tops, 1.3600 mark back in sight

GBP/USD gained strong follow-through traction for the second straight session on Wednesday.
The upbeat mood undermined the safe-haven USD and remained supportive of the momentum.
Approval of COVID-19 vaccine by AstraZeneca/Oxford further boosted the global risk sentiment.

Haresh Menghani FXStreet

The USD selling remained unabated through the first half of the European session and pushed the GBP/USD pair to fresh weekly tops, around the 1.3575-80 region in the last hour.

The pair added to the previous day's goodish positive move and continued scaling higher for the second consecutive session on Wednesday. The momentum was exclusively sponsored by the heavily offered tone surrounding the US dollar and assisted the GBP/USD to reverse Monday's corrective slide.

Despite a Senate delay in US stimulus checks, investors remained optimistic about the likelihood of additional financial aid. This, along with increasing bets for a strong global economic recovery in 2021, remained supportive of the upbeat market mood and undermined the safe-haven greenback.

Investors' appetite for perceived riskier assets got an additional boost after UK regulators approved the use of the AstraZeneca/Oxford coronavirus vaccine. This was seen as another factor that drove some flows towards the British pound and remained supportive of the GBP/USD pair strong move up.

That said, concerns about the exclusion of the crucial services sector in Brexit agreement and a sharp rise in new cases infected by a mutant coronavirus in the UK might cap gains for the GBP/USD pair. Moreover, year-end thin liquidity might further hold bullish trades from placing fresh bets.

There isn't any major market-moving economic data due for release from the UK. The US economic docket features the second-tier releases of Goods Trade Balance, Chicago PMI and Pending Home Sales. This leaves the GBP/USD pair at the mercy of the USD price dynamics and the market risk sentiment.

Technical levels to watch

GBP/USD

Overview
Today last price	1.3574
Today Daily Change	0.0077
Today Daily Change %	0.57
Today daily open	1.3497

Trends
Daily SMA20	1.3429
Daily SMA50	1.3274
Daily SMA100	1.3143
Daily SMA200	1.283

Levels
Previous Daily High	1.3523
Previous Daily Low	1.3438
Previous Weekly High	1.362
Previous Weekly Low	1.3188
Previous Monthly High	1.3398
Previous Monthly Low	1.2854
Daily Fibonacci 38.2%	1.349
Daily Fibonacci 61.8%	1.3471
Daily Pivot Point S1	1.3449
Daily Pivot Point S2	1.3402
Daily Pivot Point S3	1.3365
Daily Pivot Point R1	1.3534
Daily Pivot Point R2	1.357
Daily Pivot Point R3	1.3618

Author

Haresh Menghani

FXStreet

Haresh Menghani is a detail-oriented professional with 10+ years of extensive experience in analysing the global financial markets.

GBP/USD remains offered; bears target 1.3600

GBP/USD now leaves behind part of its recent recovery and revisits the low 1.3600s at the beginning of the week. Indeed, Cable trades with a mild downward bias amid decent gains in the Greenback as investors remain wary of upcoming US data releases and the Jackson Hole event.

EUR/USD remains sidelined above 1.1650

EUR/USD trades on the defensive following the closing bell on Wall Street on Monday, hovering around the 1.1660 region and adding to Friday’s small decline. The pair’s pullback comes in response to an acceptable rebound in the US Dollar in a context of generalised caution ahead of key US data releases and Chair Warsh’s speech in Jackson Hole.

Gold poised to extend its bullish run

Gold surrenders part of its initial advance, although it keeps its bullish pace well and sound above the $4,600 mark per troy ounce on Monday. The precious metal’s move higher comes despite slight gains in the US Dollar and a modest pullback in US Treasury yields across the curve.

XRP surged 72%, but is the rally really about XRP?

Ripple (XRP) surged more than 72% in less than a week, its strongest rally since July 2025, as cryptocurrency prices broadly broke out. But the move has a problem: it may have little to do with XRP itself. The token's near-term rally appears to have been driven largely by a broader liquidity shift after the US Treasury expanded long-end bond buybacks, pulling yields lower and lifting risk assets.

Convulsion in credit markets

The United States government just posted a $432.3 billion deficit for July, the largest monthly shortfall since March of 2021. That single burst of red ink pushed the yeartodate deficit to $1.8 trillion, with two months still remaining in fiscal 2026. At this pace, Washington will soon wax nostalgic for the “good old days” when annual deficits were only $2 trillion.

$20 billion offered, $2 billion taken: Why Treasury doubled its buyback cap

The US Treasury moved off its own calendar on Wednesday, and that is the part worth sitting with. At 12:32 GMT, the department said it would at least double the size of liquidity support buyback operations in the 10-year to 20-year and 20-year to 30-year sectors, lifting the maximum from $2 billion per operation to at least $4 billion, effective September 9 and running to November 4.