On Tuesday morning the GBP/USD was making attempt to surge above a resistance level near the 1.2910 mark.
If that level would be broken, the rate could surge, in accordance with the technical charts, as high as the 1.2980 level.
The British Pound appreciated against the US Dollar, following the UK Retail Sales data released on Friday at 09:30 GMT. The GBP/USD exchange currency rate gained 8 pips or 0.06% during a minute, right after the release. The British Pound continued trading at the 1.2940 area against the US Dollar.
The Office for National Statistics released UK Retail Sales data that came out lower- than-expected of negative 0.9%, compare to forecasted negative 0.8%.
The head of inflation at the ONS, Mike Hardie, said: "Inflation eased mainly due to a big fall in petrol, with oil prices tumbling in recent months."
The Office for National Statistics noted: "In the three months to December 2018, estimates in the quantity bought decreased by 0.2% with declines across all main sectors except fuel. Looking at annual growth rates, the whole of 2018 increased by 2.7% in the quantity bought; an annual slowdown in comparison with the peak of 4.7% experienced in 2016."
Quiet week for macro releases
As it is accustomed, the third week of the month is expected to be rather empty for macroeconomic data releases. Although, there are a couple of releases to look forward to this week.On Tuesday, the UK Average Earnings Index was published at 09:30 GMT. The results of the event can be seen by clicking the link below.
On Wednesday, look forward to the Canadian Retail Sales data release at 13:30 GMT. This event most likely will be the only one notable enough during the rest of the week to be traded by currency release traders.
On Thursday, main attention of fundamental event traders will be on the ECB Rate Announcement at 12:45 GMT. The volatility on the EUR charts usually increases during the ECB Press Conference, which will start at 13:30 GMT.
Meanwhile, oil traders will most likely catch a one percent move at 15:30 GMT. The data release has been providing moves of more than one percent during the last month and a half.
GBP/USD short term review
On Tuesday morning, the currency exchange rate was supported by the 200-hour simple moving average to trade at the 1.2864 mark.By the middle of the day it had surged even higher and reached above the 1.2900 level. Namely, at 1.2910 the rate was testing the resistance of a monthly pivot point.
If the resistance is broken, the rate would surge above the 1.2980 mark. On the other hand, it could decline down to the 55 and 100-hour simple moving averages at the 1.2900 level.
Hourly Chart
On the daily chart the next notable cluster of resistance is located at the 1.3030 level. At that level the rate is set to face the weekly R1, which was calculated this Monday.
Meanwhile note that the 100-day simple moving average was standing at the 1.2900 level on Tuesday morning.
Daily chart
Meanwhile, trader set up pending orders in the 100-base point range were short. Namely, 60% of orders were set to sell the pair.
In general, it can be assumed that traders are waiting for events that would trigger their sell orders and open short positions.