GBP/USD retreats toward 1.3920 amid stronger USD
- GBP/USD falters upside momentum on Friday in the early European trading session.
- US Dollar Index trades above 92.30 on upbeat economic data and Fed official’s hawkish views.
- The sterling gains vanish after BOE kept its key rates unchanged in the latest monetary policy meeting.
GBP/USD edges lower on Friday’s Asian trading session. The pair opened higher albeit retreated quickly to touch the intraday low of 1.3915.
At the time of writing, GBP/USD is trading at 1.3920, down 0.06 % for the day.
The US Dollar Index (DXY), which tracks the greenback performance against its six major rivals, trades above 92.30 with 0.11% gains. The US Initial Jobless Claims fell for a second straight week to 385K in July, in line with market expectations of 384K.
Meanwhile, US Senate Leader Chuck Schumer confirmed that the debate on a $1 trillion infrastructure will commence on Saturday.
In addition to that, investors rushed to safe-haven assets in view of the rapid spread of the delta variant and its impact on the global economic recovery.
On the other hand, the sterling gains were short-lived after the Bank of England (BOE) kept its key rates unchanged at historic lows of 0.1% as widely anticipated.
The comments from the BOE Governor Andrew Bailey over the inflation that could peak higher more than expected around 4% weighed on the British Pound.
As for now, investors await the US Nonfarm Payrolls to gauge the market sentiment.
GBP/USD additional levels