GBP/USD off lows, still in the red just above 1.2900 mark

The GBP/USD pair momentarily slipped below the 1.2900 mark during the mid-European session, with bears eyeing a move back towards challenging YTD lows.

The pair came under some renewed selling pressure on the first day of a new trading week and eroded a major part of Friday's goodish intraday positive move of over 100 pips. The pair remained capped below the key 1.30 psychological mark and was being weighed down by a combination of negative factors.

Bears to wait for some follow-through selling

Concerns that Britain might crash out of the European Union at the end of the transition period later this year turned out to be one of the key factors holding investors from placing any fresh bullish bets. This coupled with resurgent US dollar demand exerted some additional downward pressure on the major.

The dramatic increase in the number of confirmed coronavirus cases further fueled worries about its impact on global economic growth. This led to a fresh wave of the global risk-aversion trade, which was evident from a sea of red across equity markets and benefitted the greenback's perceived safe-haven status.

Meanwhile, fears surrounding the coronavirus outbreak led to a sharp downfall in the US Treasury bond yields. This might keep a lid on any runaway USD rally and turn out to be the only factors that could help limit any deeper losses for the major, at least for the time being.

Hence, it will be prudent to wait for some strong follow-through selling, possibly below the recent swing lows support near the 1.2880 region, before positioning for any further near-term depreciating move amid absent relevant market moving economic releases.

Technical levels to watch