UK employment above expectations

A batch of solid British labour market data underpinned the fundamental basis for GBPUSD to rise over the last seven trading sessions, pushing the pair to 1.4000, an area of highs from the start of March.

Unemployment claims number rose by 10.1K in March after a jump of 67.2K (revised down from 86.6K). This data painted a brighter picture of Britain’s economic recovery, being noticeably better than expected and also due to the revision of previous data.

Interestingly, the stronger-than-expected data failed to spur the Pound to further gains. It is likely that “buy rumour sell fact” trends initially prevailed in the market.

Despite the short-term slippage, it may be too risky to bet against the Pound in the current circumstances when strong domestic macroeconomic data is supported by increased risk appetite in global markets and a weaker dollar trend.

Having managed to hold at 1.4000, GBPUSD could quickly head towards the February highs above 1.4240, which is also near the 2018 peaks. A fast and direct path to 1.5000, an important round level and all-time highs since the Brexit referendum, is already opening up.

The FxPro Analyst Team