The British pound today traded sideways against the US dollar following the failed Brexit talks during yesterday’s meetings between EU leaders and British PM Theresa May. The pound was further weighed down by the release of the latest UK retail sales data in the early European session, which missed expectations by a significant margin.
The GBP/USD currency pair today traded in a range marked by a high of 1.3131 and a low of 1.3075 and was within this range at the time of writing.
The currency pair opened today’s session on a downward trend as a result of yesterday’s disastrous Brexit talks where little to no progress was made. The EU leaders were so disappointed by the results of the meeting that they even canceled the Brexit meeting that was scheduled for November. The cancellation of the November meeting dampened investor sentiment towards the pound as markets prepared for the possibility of a no-deal Brexit. The pair rallied slightly after the release of the UK retail sales data by the Office for National Statistics.
The headline and core retail sales prints both declined by 0.8% in September versus the expected 0.4% contraction. This translated into annualized prints of 3.0% and 3.2% respectively. The release of the positive US initial jobless claims data by the Department of Labor and the Philadelphia Fed Manufacturing Business Outlook Survey dragged the pair lower.
The currency pair’s performance is likely to be influenced by Brexit headlines and tomorrow’s UK public sector finances.
The GBP/USD currency pair was trading at 1.3097 as at 13:37 GMT having dropped from a high of 1.3131. The GBP/JPY currency pair was trading at 147.36 having declined from a high of 147.73.
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