“The economy has a long way to go” – that has been the Federal Reserve’s mantra in recent months, and after a short distraction, it has returned to dominate the dollar’s decline. Officials at the world’s most powerful central bank – with the exception of Dallas Fed President Robert Kaplan – have all repeated the dovish message. It has sunk in.
The greenback gave back some ground it gained after the Fed’s meeting minutes showed that some members conditionally supported having a discussion about printing fewer dollars at some point. Despite the subtlety of that single passage in the protocols, the currency bounced late on Wednesday before fading away. Read more…
Cable jumped to 1.4200 zones after upbeat UK retail sales but failed to break higher, remaining within 1.41/1.42 range for the fourth straight day. Larger bulls remain supported but face headwinds on approach to 2021 high at 1.4238 (Feb 24).
Fundamentals remain supportive for sterling as retail sales jumped above pre-pandemic levels with UK May PMI data being in focus (Composite May 62.0 f/c vs 60.7 Apr; Services May 62.0 f/c vs 61.0 Apr and Manufacturing May 60.5% f/c vs 60.9 Apr) with better than expected figures to further boost sterling. Read more …
The GBP/USD pair shot to fresh three-month tops during the mid-European session, albeit quickly retreated few pips thereafter. The pair was last seen trading just below the 1.4200 mark, nearly unchanged for the day.
Following a brief consolidation through the first part of the trading action on Friday, the pair turned positive for the second consecutive session and built on the overnight strong move up. The US dollar struggled to gain any meaningful traction and languished near multi-month lows. This, along with mostly upbeat UK macro data, provided a modest lift to the GBP/USD pair. Read more…
