- 56% of pending orders in the 100-pip range are to SELL
- 57% of SWFX traders are bullish on the Pound (-2%)
- Significant resistance is located circa 1.32
- Bank Holiday in the US
The Labour Department showed that the US job market faced unexpected decrease in jobs, as the economy lost 33K positions in September, reflecting the impact of Hurricanes Harvey and Irma.
However, the unemployment rate declined to a new low of 4.2% in the same period. Following the report, market expectations for the Federal Reserve to raise rates in December were still high.
US Bank Holiday
Monday is set to be calm in terms of fundamental events, as banks in the United States are closed due to Columbus Day. There is still one data release from the UK, namely, the Retail Sales Monitor for September published by the British Retail Consortium at 2301GMT. However, it is unlikely to affect the given pair in any way.
GBP/USD tries to cross 55-hour SMA
Despite the release of better that expected American income data, the Greenback failed to exploit this fundamental background and eventually depreciated against the Pound. At the moment, the pair is going to start testing a combined resistance set up by the upper trend-line of a recently formed descending channel and the 55-hour SMA.
As majority of traders remain bullish, the rate might briefly sneak to the top, trying to reach the 38.2% Fibonacci retracement level at 1.3145. However, an aggregate of technical indicators points out on the further downfall of the rate via sending strong sell signal.
This direction seems evident also from larger perspective, as a couple of weeks ago the pair made a rebound from the upper boundary of a long-term descending channel.
Hourly chart
The Pound continued to trade in the red area on Friday, but the solid plunge apparent on Thursday did allay. As a result, the rate closed between the 55- and 100-hour SMAs right on the lower Bollinger band. By and large, there is still some downside potential until the monthly and weekly S1s that could guide the pair this week.
Daily chart
Bullish market sentiment strengthens
SWFX market sentiment is bullish on Monday, as the number of long positions is 57% (-2%). In addition, 52% of pending orders are to buy the Pound (+1%).
OANDA traders have turned bullish on the Pound, as 51% of open positions are long. Meanwhile, traders at Saxo Bank have decreased their bearish perspective with 57% short positions (-2%).