- The Swiss market is 58% bullish on the pair
- 66% of pending orders in the 100-pip range are set to buy
- The week has ended for macroeconomics
On Friday the Pound was retreating against the US Dollar. The rate was beat down by the combined resistance of the upper trend line of a medium pattern and the weekly R2 at the 1.3046 level.
The Greenback weakened against the British Pound, following the United Kingdom Retail Sales release. The GBP/USD currency pair gained 20 pips, or 0.16%.
The Office for National Statistics released UK Retail Sales data that came better-than-expected at 0.7% with the forecasted of 0.2%. The actual data is good for the currency because there come more opportunities for the change in the total value of inflation-adjusted sales at the retail level.
The Office for National Statistics senior statistician, Rhian Murphy said: "Many consumers stayed away from some high street stores in July, but online sales were very strong, supported by several retailers launching promotions. Food sales remained robust as people continued to enjoy the World Cup and the sunshine."
The week has ended
There are no more data releases set to occur this week. However, join Dukascopy Analytics at 08:20 GMT on Monday morning for the live coverage of the UK Manufacturing PMI release.
GBP/USD consolidates on Friday
The GBP/USD remained stuck in the range at the 1.3020 mark on Friday morning. The rate bounced off the upper boundary of the freshly drawn trend line during Thursday's session.The rate had no support on Friday, as the closest support level was the 55-hour SMA at 1.2980. However, it was too far away from the rate to actually provide support. Moreover, the hourly SMA's tried to catch up the rate during the last two trading sessions.
Most likely the currency exchange rate will continue to trade sideways until the SMAs catch up and slam it into the weekly R2 at 1.3046.
Hourly Chart
The daily chart shows that the jump occurred, as the rate passed the resistance of two pivot point level below the 1.2950 mark. Afterwards, without significant resistance, the rate surged until it reached the resistance of the weekly second resistance at 1.3046. The resistance was also strengthened by the 55-day simple moving average.
If the resistance levels get passed, the pair would surge up to the 1.3150 mark, where the next resistance cluster is located at.
Daily chart
The Swiss trader sentiment remains largely bullish. Namely, traders of the Swiss Foreign Exchange were long in 58% of all of their open positions.
In the meantime, Swiss traders are no longer preparing to massively sell the pair. Previously, 63% of all trader set up pending orders were set to sell the pair under certain circumstances. On Thursday, the orders were almost neutral, as 52% of trader orders were set to buy. By Friday, the retail sector was already bullish in regards to set up orders, as 55% of orders were to buy.
Meanwhile, OANDA traders remain largely bullish, as 63% of open positions are long at the brokerage. In the meantime, traders at SAXO Bank are 54% long on the GBP/USD pair.
Spreads (avg, pip) / Trading volume / Volatility