The British pound today rallied slightly higher against the US dollar after the release of mixed macro data from the UK docket. The release of positive industrial production data by the Office for National Statistics boosted the British pound even as the construction output and trade balance figures missed expectations.
The GBP/USD pair opened the day’s session trading downwards, but the release of macro data from the UK docket allowed the pair to rally higher by over 30 points, as at the time of writing.
The UK’s industrial production data for June exceeded expectations by coming in at 0.5% versus the market consensus of 0.1%. The manufacturing production figures for June also met expectations by coming in at an annualized growth rate of 0.6%. The UK’s trade deficit recorded a major increase to about £12.72 billion in June as compared to the expected £11 billion deficit. The UK’s construction output also recorded a 0.9% rise on an annualized basis against the expected 1.8% increase.
The US dollar was largely stronger against the British pound during the Asian session, but it is not clear if the pound’s rally shall be sustained for the rest of the day’s session. The mixed UK data sent strong signals to investors that the Bank of England might not announce a rate hike this year.
The future performance of the currency pair is likely to be affected by the release of the US jobless claims data scheduled for later today.
The GBP/USD pair was trading at 1.2999 as at 10:30 GMT having rallied from a low of 1.2951. The GBP/JPY currency pair was trading at 142.77 having declined from a high of 143.33.
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