The Sterling pound today crashed against the US dollar as investor sentiment turned decisively bearish favouring the safe-haven greenback, which rallied. The GBP/USD currency pair today fell despite the release of upbeat UK retail sales data earlier in the session as investors fled riskier assets, including equities.
The GBP/USD currency pair today fell from a high of 1.3255 in the early London session to a low of 1.3059 during the American market losing over 190 pips in the process.
The currency pair’s declined coincided with the greenback’s recovery as tracked by the US Dollar Index, which rallied after hitting a low of 92.58 earlier today. The release of the upbeat UK retail sales report for July by the Office for National Statistics had a muted impact on the pair. Even though both the headline and core prints beat expectations, the release of the Markit/CIPS flash UK Manufacturing, and Services PMIs also could not stop the pair’s decline. The services PMI came in at 60.1 versus the expected 57, while the manufacturing PMI was 55.3 versus consensus estimates of 53.8.
Michel Barnier‘s speech saying that the latest round of Brexit talks had yielded no progress, and the confirm’s by the UK’s David Frost also drove the pair lower. The release of the upbeat Markit flash US Manufacturing and Services PMIs during the American session contributed to the pair’s decline.
The currency pair’s performance over the upcoming weekend is likely to be affected by geopolitical events.
The GBP/USD currency pair was trading at 1.3078 as at 17:51 GMT, having crashed from a high of 1.3255. The GBP/JPY currency pair was trading at 138.42, having fallen from a high of 139.95.
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