GBP/USD struggles for direction, remains capped below 1.3000 mark

GBP/USD was seen consolidating the previous day’s volatile intraday swings.
The optimism over a possible Brexit deal extended some support to the pair.
BoE negative interest rate talks held bulls from placing any aggressive bets.

Haresh Menghani FXStreet

The GBP/USD pair lacked any firm directional bias on Friday and seesawed between tepid gains/minor losses through the early part of the European trading session.

Following the previous day's intraday volatility, the pair now seems to have stabilized near the top end of its weekly trading range. The overnight optimistic Brexit-related comments by the European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, saying that a trade deal between the EU and the UK is still possible, extended some support to the British pound.

This coupled with the prevalent selling bias surrounding the US dollar further collaborated towards limiting the downside for the GBP/USD pair. Doubts over the sustainability of the US economic recovery kept the USD bulls on the defensive. The market worries resurfaced following the release of Thursday's rather unimpressive US macroeconomic data.

Despite the supporting factors, the GBP/USD struggled to attract any meaningful buying and remained below the key 1.3000 psychological mark. The fact that the Bank of England discussed implementing negative interest rates at the September policy meeting on Thursday kept a lid on any strong gains for major, at least for the time being.

This makes it prudent to wait for some strong follow-through buying before traders again start positioning for an extension of the recent strong recovery move from multi-week lows, around the 1.2760 region touched last Friday.

Market participants now look forward to the release of the Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index for September, scheduled later during the early North American session. The data might influence the USD price dynamics and produce some short-term trading opportunities on the last day of the week.

Technical levels to watch

GBP/USD

Overview
Today last price	1.2983
Today Daily Change	0.0009
Today Daily Change %	0.07
Today daily open	1.2974

Trends
Daily SMA20	1.3108
Daily SMA50	1.2993
Daily SMA100	1.2712
Daily SMA200	1.2732

Levels
Previous Daily High	1.2999
Previous Daily Low	1.2865
Previous Weekly High	1.3279
Previous Weekly Low	1.2763
Previous Monthly High	1.3396
Previous Monthly Low	1.2982
Daily Fibonacci 38.2%	1.2948
Daily Fibonacci 61.8%	1.2916
Daily Pivot Point S1	1.2893
Daily Pivot Point S2	1.2812
Daily Pivot Point S3	1.2759
Daily Pivot Point R1	1.3027
Daily Pivot Point R2	1.308
Daily Pivot Point R3	1.3161

Author

Haresh Menghani

FXStreet

Haresh Menghani is a detail-oriented professional with 10+ years of extensive experience in analysing the global financial markets.

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