British pound dips despite rebound in retail sales

• UK retail sales rise in May
• Former Fed Chair Bernanke says Fed hikes could be done after July

The British pound is in negative territory on Friday. In the European session, GBP/USD is trading at 1.2824, down 0.34%. The pound continues to show strong volatility – after gaining 2% last week, it has surrendered all of those gains this week.

UK retail sales beat expectations

UK retail sales rebounded in June after a sluggish May due to King Charles’ coronation, which dampened consumer spending. Retail sales rose 0.7% m/m in June, up sharply from the 0.1% gain in May (revised downwards from 0.3%). Core retail sales jumped 0.8% in June, up from 0.0% in May (revised downwards from 0.1%).

The hot weather in June contributed to strong sales and the uptick was broadly distributed throughout the economy. At the same time, high inflation means that consumers are getting less for their buck. Food prices have been especially high and jumped in June by 17.4% y/y according to the Office for National Statistics.

Consumers may still be spending but that doesn’t mean they are a happy lot. GfK Consumer Confidence slipped to -30 in July, down from -24 in June and below the consensus of -26. This marked the first time that consumer confidence declined since January. High interest rates and an inflation rate of close to 8% have soured the mood of consumers. The Bank of England has struggled to curb inflation despite aggressive tightening, and the UK boasts the unwanted record of the highest inflation among the major economies.

Is the Fed finally done?

The Federal Reserve meets on July 26^th and investors have priced in a 0.25% hike as a near certainty.  Will that wind up the current tightening cycle? The markets seem to think so and have priced a hike in September at just 16%, according to the CME FedWatch tool. Are the markets out of sync with the hawkish Federal Reserve?

Fed members have said that inflation isn’t falling fast enough, which could mean that another hike is coming after July. Former Fed Chair Ben Bernanke appeared to side with the market view, saying on Thursday that the July hike could be the final rate increase in the current tightening cycle. Bernanke said that the economy would slow further before the 2% inflation target was reached, but he expected any recession to be mild.

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GBP/USD Technical

• There is weak support at 1.2816. Next, there is support at 1.2766
•  There is resistance at 1.2891 and 1.2995

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