The GBP/USD was recovering on Wednesday in a sharp move upwards.
Namely, by the middle of Wednesday's London trading session the currency exchange rate had reached the combined support of the 100 and 200-hour simple moving averages at 1.2485.
The British Pound appreciated against the US Dollar, following the UK Retail Sales data release on Thursday at 08:30 GMT. The GBP/USD exchange currency rate gained 12 pips or 0.10% right after the release. The British Pound continued trading at the 1.2480 level against the Greenback.
The Office for National Statistics released the UK Retail Sales data, which came out better-than-expected of 1.0% compared with the forecast of negative 0.3%.
According to the official release: "In the three months to June 2019, the quantity bought increased by 0.7%, with growth across all sectors except food stores and department stores; however, this was a slowdown from the stronger growth of 1.6% in the three months to May 2019. Online sales as a proportion of all retailing fell to 18.9% in June 2019, from the 19.3% reported in May 2019."
Data from US could cause movements
On the Thursday, the US Core Durable Goods Orders data will be released at 12:30 GMT. Last time, this release caused an eight-pip move in the GBP/USD rate.
On Friday, the US Advance GDP data will be released at 12:30 GMT. The previous data release caused a 22-pip move.
GBP/USD short-term review
Yesterday, the GBP/USD exchange rate skyrocketed to the 1.2520 level and reversed south to the 1.2470 mark.Note, that the rate is squeezed by the 55-hour moving average and the weekly PP, located at 1.2463 and 1.2492 respectively. Thus, the currency pair could trade sideways in the short term.
Also, note, that during today's morning, the pair was pressured by the 100– and 200-hour SMAs at 1.2477. Thus, if the given support does not hold, the British Pound could depreciate against the US Dollar. A possible downside target is the 1.2420/1.2440 range.
Hourly Chart
On the daily candle chart, the dominant descending channel pattern's lower trend line caused the recent surge by providing support. The trend line was also strengthened by the weekly and monthly support levels.
Meanwhile, note that the daily simple moving averages are far above the currency pair, indicating that the pair is oversold.
Daily chart
Meanwhile, trader set up pending orders in the 100-pip range were bullish, as 62% of orders were set to buy.