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The British Pound strengthened against the Greenback, following the UK Retail Sales data release on Thursday. The GBP/USD currency pair gained 24 pips, or 0.18%, to continue fluctuating in the 1.3395 area.
The Office for National Statistics released All Retail Sales data that came out better-than-expected of 1.6%, compared to the negative 1.2% in the previous period, moreover doubling the expectations of 0.8% for the month of April.
Retail sellers enjoyed April's jump in sales, which was the biggest in the last 18 months. Petrol, food and fashion clothing sales bounced and pushed sales volumes up as the previous "beast from east" fell off the cliff.
| Historical Data Table: UK Retail Sales m/m | Economic Calendar for 25.05.2018 | ||||||||
| Date | 19.01.2018 | 16.02.2018 | 22.03.2018 | 19.04.2018 | 24.05.2018 | 8:30 AM | UK Second Estimate GDP q/q | ||
| Actual | -1.40% | -0.20% | 0.80% | -1.20% | 1.60% | 8:30 AM | UK Prelim Business Investm. | ||
| Forecast | -0.80% | 0.50% | 0.40% | -0.50% | 0.80% | 8:30 AM | UK High Street Lending | ||
| Initial Reaction on Main Pairs | SWFX Sentiment Indexes | ||||||||
| Open Price | Close Price | % Change | Longs | Shorts | |||||
| GBP/USD | 1.33833 | 1.34092 | 0.19% | GBP/USD | 65.27% | 34.73% | |||
| EUR/GBP | 0.87671 | 0.87565 | -0.12% | EUR/GBP | 28.63% | 71.37% | |||
| GBP/CAD | 1.7204 | 1.7232 | 0.16% | GBP/CAD | 65.28% | 34.72% | |||
| GBP/JPY | 146.784 | 147.134 | 0.24% | GBP/JPY | 45.02% | 54.98% | |||