The British pound currency has continued to hold above the 1.2600 level against the US dollar after the US inflation rate remained above consensus on a monthly basis.
Traders now await the Bank of England rate decision. Consensus is a 25-basis points rate hike and is widely expected by the market, from 4.25% to 4.50%.
There is a division at the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) as external members Silvana Tenreyro and Swati Dhingra do not support further rate hikes.
They are expected to vote against more tightening. The rest of the seven members are seen favouring rate hikes. If some members join the “no change” team, this will hit GBP.
Last rate remained above the 10% mark for a seventh consecutive period and the Bank of England’s 2% target for almost two years, suggesting policymakers might continue to raise borrowing costs.
Going forward, the Bank of England could continue to hike rates under these circumstances, which is likely to be further supportive for the British pound currency.
Looking at sentiment data and how traders feel about sterling, the ActivTrader Market Sentiment tool shows that traders are growing more bearish despite the recent sharp price reversal.
With 64% of traders are currently bearish and it should be noted that this current sentiment reading is highlighting that sterling still has much scope to trade even higher also.
GBPUSD Short-term Technical Analysis
Looking at the four-hour time frame, a clear range break happening, with the break happening around the 1.2600 level.
According to the overall size of the pattern, I would expect that we could soon see a 200-point upside in GBPUSD if the price stays above the 1.2600 level.
GBPUSD Medium-term Technical Analysis
According to the daily time frame it shows that that GBPUSD pair is starting to settle above 1.2600, which is located close to top of its medium-term range.
According to the technical analysis the GBPUSD is bullish and is getting a buy signal above 1.2600, and we could see a ramp towards 1.3000 or a drop towards 1.2500.