The ascending pattern on the hourly candle GBP/USD chart held its ground and has pushed the rate higher.
Moreover, during Thursday's London trading morning hours the rate was trading amidst the hourly simple moving averages, which were the last resistance to the rate before the pivot point at 1.2212.
Institute for Supply Management released the US Non-Manufacturing PMI data, which came out worse-than-expected of 53.7 compared with the forecast of 55.5.
Anthony Nieves, Chair of the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) Non-Manufacturing Business Survey Committee commented: "The NMI registered 53.7 percent, which is 1.4 percentage points lower than the June reading of 55.1 percent. This represents continued growth in the non-manufacturing sector, at a slower rate. This is the index's lowest reading since August 2016, when it registered 51.8 percent. Respondents indicated ongoing concerns related to tariffs and employment resources. Comments remained mixed about business conditions and the overall economy."
UK economic data
On Friday, a data release from the UK is expected at 8:30 GMT. Namely, the UK GDP and Manufacturing Production will be released.
Although, note that the previous data release of this type caused only a nine pip move.
GBP/USD short-term review
On Thursday morning, short term forecasts were based on what will happen at the 1.2170 level, where the three hourly simple moving averages were about to meet.In general, it was more likely that the rate will break out to the upside as soon as the simple moving averages meet. In that case scenario the pair would surge up to the weekly pivot point at 1.2212.
On the other hand, the rate might trade sideways throughout the day until the sideways move reaches the support line of the ascending channel pattern.
Hourly Chart
A review of the daily candle chart has revealed that the rate has been in a smaller scale descending channel pattern that represents the rate's sharper decline, which began at the start of May.
The pattern's lower trend line is strengthening the support of the weekly S1 at 1.2038.
Daily chart
Meanwhile, trader set up pending orders in the 100-pip range were neutral as 51% of orders were set to buy and 49% were to sell.
The orders were balanced 50 vs 50 on Wednesday.