Pound pushes above 1.38, GDP next

The British pound has punched above the 1.38 level in the Thursday session. GBP/USD is currently trading at 1.3858, up 0.63% on the day.

After posting three straight days of losses, the British pound has rebounded strongly on Thursday. The US dollar is in retreat against the majors, despite a positive unemployment claims release earlier in the day. Claims fell to 310 thousand, down from 345 thousand a week earlier.

We’ll get another look at US inflation data on Friday, with the release of PPI for August expected to indicate that inflation remains red-hot. The consensus stands at 6.5% (YoY) compared to 6.2% in July. The Federal Reserve continues to insist that the surge in inflation is transitory and has been reluctant to respond with a tightening of policy, fearing that the time is not ripe for a scaling back of QE. Still, more investors are sure to join the skeptics if inflation continues to remain at high levels in the final months of 2o21.

In the UK, the markets will be treated to a data dump on Friday. The key events are GDP and Manufacturing Production. With the Delta variant of Covid continuing to hurt economic growth, July GDP is expected somewhere around zero, which could mean a small decline. Manufacturing Production is also expected to be sluggish with a forecast of 0.1% (MoM). We could see some strong movement from the pound, depending on the performance of these two releases.

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GBP/USD Technical Analysis

• There is resistance at 1.3924. Above, there is resistance at 1.3988, just below the symbolic line of 1.40
• On the downside, we have support at 1.3763 and 1.3666

For a look at all of today’s economic events, check out our economic calendar. www.marketpulse.com/economic-events/

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