The British pound today rallied higher against the US dollar from the early European session following the release of upbeat UK retail sales data for January. The GBP/USD currency pair was trading in a see-saw fashion during the Asian session as investors remained indecisive regarding the Sterling.
The GBP/USD currency pair today rallied from a low of 1.2784 to a high of 1.2831, but was slightly below this high at the time of writing.
The currency pair opened today’s session with a slight bullish bias driven largely by positive investor sentiment amid a risk-on market mood. However, the pair’s gains were limited by yesterday’s UK political developments as PM Theresa May suffered another defeat in Parliament. PM May’s defeat during the indicative vote was largely due to the fact that Conservative Party MPs who are members of the European Research Group abstained from the vote.
The release of the UK’s January retail sales data by the Office for National Statistics was the main trigger behind the pair’s rally. According to the report, headline retail sales came in at 1.0% versus the expected 0.2%, while core retail sales were recorded at 1.2% as compared to the consensus estimate of 0.2% growth. A slight retracement by the greenback as tracked by the US Dollar Index also boosted the pair amid trade war concerns.
The currency pair’s short-term performance is likely to be affected by the release of the UoM consumer sentiment data, President Trump’s speech and Brexit headlines.
The GDP/USD currency pair was trading at 1.2827 as at 12:56 GMT having rallied from a low of 1.2784. The GBP/JPY currency pair was trading at 141.64 having risen from a low of 140.98.
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