GBP/USD refreshes YTD lows, around 1.2830 level

The intraday selling around the British pound picked up pace during the early North-American session and pushed the GBP/USD pair below mid-1.2800s or fresh YTD lows.

Persistent uncertainty about the future UK-EU trade relationship continued weighing on the sentiment surrounding the sterling and failed to assist the pair to capitalize on its early attempted positive move to an intraday high level of 1.2920.

GBP/USD weighed down by a combination of factors

It is worth recalling that the EU's mandate on the post-Brexit negotiations emphasized on the need for a 'level playing field' while the UK threatened to walk away from trade talks on WTO rules in June unless there is the "broad outline" of an agreement.

Apart from the Brexit-related jitters, the pair was further pressurized by a modest US dollar bounce from multi-week lows. However, the ongoing slump in the US Treasury bond yields to all-time lows might cap the greenback and help limit losses.

It will now be interesting to see if the current leg down marks a fresh bearish breakdown of the pair is able to find some buying at lower levels as the focus now shifts to the start of the crucial UK-EU Brexit negotiations, starting next week.

Technical levels to watch