- GBP/USD is trading above its opening price by 1.50%.
- Global S&P PMIs for the US showed preliminary that the economy is slowing faster than expected.
- US consumer sentiment remains positive as inflation expectations ease.
- US durable goods orders topped forecasts, showing resilience from consumers.
the pound sterling It recovers again above 1.2000 after the publication of mixed economic data in the United States, which weighed on the dollar. At the same time, a boost in risk appetite keeps European and US stocks gaining ahead of the release of the minutes of the latest Federal Reserve (Fed) meeting. At the time of writing this report, the pair GBP/USD it is trading at 1.2051 after reaching a daily low of 1.1872.
US economic data was mixed, hurting the dollar
Data releases in the US were mixed, which hurt the dollar. University of Michigan (UoM) consumer sentiment came in at 56.9, above estimates but below November’s preliminary reading. Digging deeper into the report, one-year inflation expectations were lowered from 5.1% to 4.9%, while the 5-10 year horizon was unchanged at 3.0%. Meanwhile, US new home sales rose surprisingly to 632,000 from 570,000, despite the almost 7% hike in mortgage rates being triggered by the tightening of monetary conditions by the Federal Reserve,
Earlier, S&P Global reported that the October Manufacturing, Services and Composite PMIs for the US are preliminary to a recession, each coming in at 47.6, 46.1 and 46.3, respectively. The biggest slump was seen in the Manufacturing index, which fell from 50.4 in the previous reading and below estimates of 50.
Before the opening of Wall Street, the US Department of Commerce showed that the orders of durable goods in October increased by 1%, compared to the estimated 0.4%, pulverizing the data of 0.3% of September, while excluding transportation, so-called basic durable goods orders rose 0.5% above forecasts. At the same time, the US Department of Labor (DoL) revealed that initial claims for unemployment benefits for the week ending November 19 rose to 240,000, above estimates of 225,000, in the midst of a period layoffs of workers by high-tech companies.
That being said, GBP/USD jumped from around 1.1950 to its new three-month high at 1.2080, a level last seen on August 17, 2022. The Dollar Index, an indicator of the value of the dollar against six pairs, falls 0.72% to 106,374.
Data released during the European session showed that the UK’s S&P Global/CIPS PMIs were unchanged, in contractionary territory, further consolidating the case for economic contraction. After the Bank of England (BoE) released its latest monetary policy report, policy makers expressed that the UK was already in recession.
What to watch out for
Traders’ attention is focused on the release of the Federal Reserve’s Open Market Committee (FOMC) minutes from the November meeting. Analysts are looking for clues about how high policymakers expect rates to reach, how many participants support that view and how many support a slowdown in rate hikes.
GBP/USD Key Technical Levels
Source: Fx Street
I am Joshua Winder, a senior-level journalist and editor at World Stock Market. I specialize in covering news related to the stock market and economic trends. With more than 8 years of experience in this field, I have become an expert in financial reporting.
