Pound Sterling Price News and Forecast: GBP/USD holds lower ground near weekly bottom

FXStreet Team FXStreet

GBP/USD struggles around 1.3600 on BOE, Brexit concerns ahead of UK Retail Sales

GBP/USD differs from other risk-sensitive currency pairs to remain inactive around 1.3590-95 during early Friday. In doing so, the cable pair struggles to justify the risk-off mood amid contrasting signals concerning Brexit and the Bank of England’s (BOE) next move ahead of the key UK Retail Sales for December.

GBP/USD

Overview
Today last price	1.36
Today Daily Change	0.0011
Today Daily Change %	0.08
Today daily open	1.3589

Trends
Daily SMA20	1.3561
Daily SMA50	1.3416
Daily SMA100	1.3546
Daily SMA200	1.3734

Levels
Previous Daily High	1.3662
Previous Daily Low	1.3587
Previous Weekly High	1.3749
Previous Weekly Low	1.3532
Previous Monthly High	1.355
Previous Monthly Low	1.3161
Daily Fibonacci 38.2%	1.3616
Daily Fibonacci 61.8%	1.3633
Daily Pivot Point S1	1.3563
Daily Pivot Point S2	1.3538
Daily Pivot Point S3	1.3488
Daily Pivot Point R1	1.3638
Daily Pivot Point R2	1.3687
Daily Pivot Point R3	1.3713

GBP/USD outlook: Sterling bounces on rising expectations for another rate hike as inflation hits

Cable regained traction and bounced on Wednesday, signaling an end of three-day pullback, sparked by a double rejection at 200DMA (1.3733) last week. Pound was boosted by UK CPI data which showed that inflation in Britain continued to rise and hit the highest level in nearly 30 years in December, offsetting policymakers’ general view of transitory process and boosting hopes for another BoE’s rate hike on Feb 3 monetary policy meeting.

EUR/USD climbs to daily highs near 1.1820

EUR/USD now picks up pace and advances to the area of daily peaks north of the 1.1800 barrier at the end of the week. The pair’s decent move higher comes against the backdrop of a generalised lack of direction in the FX galaxy and the mild offered stance in the US Dollar.

GBP/USD trims losses, retests 1.3460

After briefly challenging its key 200-day SMA near 1.3440, GBP/USD now manages to regain some balance and revisit the 1.3460 zone on Friday. Cable’s pullback comes as the selling pressure on the Greenback gathers traction, reigniting some recovery in the risk-linked space.

Gold flirts with four-week highs past $5,200

Gold extends its rebound, climbing for a third consecutive session and pushing back above the $5,200 mark per troy ounce on Friday. The move higher continues to draw support from lingering geopolitical tensions and the ongoing uncertainty surrounding US trade policy, both of which are keeping safe-haven demand firmly in play.

Bitcoin, Ethereum and Ripple consolidate with short-term cautious bullish bias

Bitcoin, Ethereum and Ripple are consolidating near key technical areas on Friday, showing mild signs of stabilization after recent volatility. BTC holds above $67,000 despite mild losses so far this week, while ETH hovers around $2,000 after a rejection near its upper consolidation boundary.

Breaking: US and Israel attack Iran, risk aversion to sweep global markets

Early Saturday, United States (US) President Donald Trump announced that the US had begun “major combat operations” in Iran, following Israel’s pre-emptive missile attacks against Tehran.

Starknet unveils strkBTC, shielded Bitcoin transactions on Ethereum Layer 2

Starknet, the Ethereum Layer 2 network developed by StarkWare, today announced strkBTC, a wrapped Bitcoin asset that introduces optional shielding while preserving full DeFi composability.