GBP/USD rallies back closer to weekly high, around mid-1.2000s on mixed US jobs data

The GBP/USD pair catches fresh bids during the early North American session and jumps to the 1.2035-1.2040 area, back closer to the weekly top in reaction to the mixed US monthly jobs data.

The headline NFP showed that the US economy added 311K new jobs in February, beating consensus estimates for a reading of 205K by a big margin. This, however, marks a sharp slowdown from the previous month's downwardly revised reading of 504K. Adding to this, the unemployment rate unexpectedly rose to 3.6% from 3.4% and wages also fell short of market estimates, rising by 0.2% for the month and a 4.6% YoY rate.

The data further points to a softening US labor market and forces investors to scale back their bets for a jumbo 50 bps rate hike at the upcoming FOMC meeting on March 21-21, which is evident from a further decline in the US Treasury bond yields. Apart from this, a goodish recovery in the US equity futures weighs heavily on the safe-haven US Dollar, which, in turn, assists the GBP/USD pair to build on its strong intraday gains.

The British Pound, on the other hand, continues to draw support from the better-than-expected UK monthly GDP print, which showed that the economy expanded by 0.3% in January. This indicates a resilient British economy, which could allow the Bank of England (BoE) to hike interest rates again later this month. This is seen as another factor providing a boost to the GBP/USD pair and supporting prospects for additional gains.

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