GBP/USD retreats from five-month top towards 1.2200 as Cable traders await US NFP

GBP/USD takes a U-turn from the highest levels since late June, marked the previous day, as markets consolidate ahead of the key US employment report for November during early Friday. That said, the Cable pair refreshes intraday low near 1.2230 by the press time.

In addition to the pre-NFP anxiety, the quote’s latest weakness could also be linked to the market’s mildly downbeat sentiment and softer data from the UK.

While portraying the mood, the S&P 500 Futures drop 0.30% intraday to 4,070 whereas the US 10-year Treasury yields printed a corrective bounce off the 10-week low to 3.53% by the press time.

The reason could be linked to fears surrounding the slowdown in the Initial Public Offering (IPO) markets. “A global slowdown in initial public offerings due to heightened market volatility and a regulatory cloud over new listings from China has created pent-up demand that could lead to an IPO boom in 2023, industry executives told the Reuters NEXT conference.”

Elsewhere, The Business Times from Singapore mentioned that the UK’s house prices registered the fastest drop since June 2020 in November, down 1.4% versus the 0.4% expected. On the contrary, record-high fresh food inflation and improvement in the UK’s final readings of S&P Global/CIPS Manufacturing PMI for November seem to challenge the GBP/USD bears.

On the same line are the hawkish hopes from the Bank of England (BOE), as well as the recently dovish calls surrounding the Federal Reserve’s (Fed) next move. Additionally, downbeat US numbers surrounding inflation and activity also weigh on the US Dollar and keep the GBP/USD bulls hopeful.

Moving on, the US jobs report for November will be crucial for the GBP/USD buyers amid calls of witnessing downbeat data and fears of more declines by the Greenback. That said, the headline Nonfarm Payrolls (NFP) is likely to ease with a 200K print versus 261K prior while the Unemployment Rate could remain unchanged at 3.7%. It should be noted that a likely easing in the Average Hourly Earnings for the stated month could also weigh on the DXY.

Also: Nonfarm Payrolls Preview: Dollar selling opportunity? Low expectations to trigger temporary bounce

Technical analysis

Failure to provide a daily closing beyond a two-month-old ascending resistance line, around 1.2270 by the press time, joins overbought RSI (14) to tease sellers. However, the bullish bias remains intact until the quote breaks the 200-DMA support of 1.2150.