Cable showed some positive signs of improvement on the Friday session, but upside gains were capped as a strong intraday pickup in US Treasury bond yields helped boost the Dollar. The Pound was helped early in the day as July’s Gfk Consumer Confidence rose for the 6th month in a row, showing the economy to recover faster than initially expected. Despite a previous figure of -9 and forecast of -8, the actual reading came out at -7. The index is now 20 points higher than it was a year ago, highlighting the scale of the economic rebound from the early stages of the pandemic. Gfk’s Client Strategy Director Joe Staton noted that consumers personal finance expectations have become increasingly stronger as the pandemic goes on, claiming that the “healthy seven-point rise aligns with strong retail growth figures that reflect the gradual unlocking of the UK high street and release of pent-up demand as Brits hit shops, restaurants and venues”. Retail Sales for June also came in 0.1% better than expected on Friday. Forecasted at 9.6%, the actual figure gave a reading of 9.7%.
Despite disappointing US Labour data on Thursday, the Dollar was helped on Friday by better than forecasted manufacturing PMI figures. July’s Flash Markit Manufacturing PMI, which measures the performance of the US manufacturing sector, recorded an actual figure of 63.1, while expected at 62.
GBPUSD started the day at 1.3759 but found tough resistance against a well sustained Dollar. Cable finally closed the week at 1.3750.
GBPEUR stayed range bound on Friday, attracting little demand from either side. The pair opened at 1.1694 and closed at 1.1692.
EURUSD also was rangebound on the day. Opening the session at 1.1764, the pair closed at 1.1761.
