GBP/USD surges through 1.3920 supply zone, hits 2-week tops

Haresh Menghani FXStreet

• USD weighed down by unimpressive CPI/US political news.
• OBR upgrades UK GDP forecast for 2018 and underpins GBP.
• A follow-through buying needed to confirm a bullish breakout.

The GBP/USD pair caught some strong bids during the early NA session and rallied around 80-pips to 2-week tops.

Against the backdrop of today's unimpressive US inflation figures, the latest US political development, wherein the US President Donald Trump fired the US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, prompted some aggressive US Dollar selling and supportive the pair's upsurge.

The British Pound was further boosted by the latest Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR's) upgraded UK economic growth forecast for 2018. The up-move took along big stops placed near the 1.3910-20 region and further collaborated towards accelerating the pair's up-move.

It, however, remains to be seen if the up-move is backed by genuine buying interest, suggesting a fresh bullish break-out, or turns to be a stop run, a possible fake-out, amid persistent worries around impending Brexit talks.

Technical levels to watch

A follow-through buying interest would reaffirm a fresh bullish breakout and should continue boosting the pair further towards reclaiming the key 1.40 psychological mark. On the flip side, the 1.3920-10 region now becomes an immediate support to defend, which if broken could accelerate the fall back towards 1.3880 horizontal support.

Author

Haresh Menghani

FXStreet

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

EUR/USD remains offered below 1.1800, looks at US data

EUR/USD is still trading on the defensive in the latter part of Thursday’s session, while the US Dollar maintains its bid bias as investors now gear up for Friday’s key release of the PCE data, advanced Q4 GDP prints and flash PMIs.

GBP/USD bounces off monthly lows near 1.3430

GBP/USD is sliding in tandem with its risk-sensitive peers, drifting back towards the 1.3430 area, its lowest levels in the month. The move reflects a firmer Greenback, supported by another round of solid US data and a somewhat divided FOMC Minutes.

Gold surrenders some gains, back below $5,000

Gold is giving away part of its earlier gains on Thursday, receding to the sub-$5,000 region per troy ounce. The precious metal is finding support from renewed geopolitical tensions in the Middle East and declining US Treasury yields across the curve in a context of further advance in the Greenback.

XRP edges lower as SG-FORGE integrates EUR stablecoin on XRP Ledger

Ripple’s (XRP) outlook remains weak, as headwinds spark declines toward the $1.40 psychological support at the time of writing on Thursday.

Hawkish Fed minutes and a market finding its footing

It was green across the board for US Stock market indexes at the close on Wednesday, with most S&P 500 names ending higher, adding 38 points (0.6%) to 6,881 overall. At the GICS sector level, energy led gains, followed by technology and consumer discretionary, while utilities and real estate posted the largest losses.

Injective token surges over 13% following the approval of the mainnet upgrade proposal

Injective price rallies over 13% on Thursday after the network confirmed the approval of its IIP-619 proposal. The green light for the mainnet upgrade has boosted traders’ sentiment, as the upgrade aims to scale Injective’s real-time Ethereum Virtual Machine architecture and enhance its capabilities to support next-generation payments.