GBP price, news and analysis:
- GBP/USD is stable early Wednesday, amid few signs of a change in the markets’ overall risk appetite.
- The pair shrugged off news of a drop in UK inflation in May to its lowest level for four years.
- A sharp move either way is unlikely ahead of a Bank of England decision on monetary policy due Thursday.
GBP/USD waits for Bank of England
GBP/USD is treading water in early European business Wednesday, largely unaffected by news that the CPI measure of UK inflation fell as expected to 0.5% year/year in May, its lowest level since June 2016 and down from 0.8% in April.
One reason for the drop was the sharp fall in oil prices earlier this year and the data are unlikely to affect the Bank of England’s decisions on monetary policy due Thursday. The Bank’s monetary policy committee is expected to keep UK Bank Rate at 0.1% but an increase is expected in its asset purchase program to £745 billion from £645 billion.
Ahead of the Bank’s statement, GBP/USD will likely hold steady.
GBP/USD Price Chart, One-Hour Timeframe (June 10-17, 2020)
Chart by IG (You can click on it for a larger image)
| Change in | Longs | Shorts | OI |
| Daily | 8% | -6% | -1% |
| Weekly | -9% | 19% | 5% |
More broadly, there has been no significant move Wednesday either into or away from risk assets and safe havens. On one side, there are concerns about more coronavirus case in China and the US, the border tensions between China and India, and also tensions between North and South Korea. However, these worries have been offset by the news Tuesday of bumper US retail sales, hopes of a $1 trillion US infrastructure package and growing optimism that there will be a swift recovery in the global economy.
Like to know more about how Bank of England monetary policy decisions can affect GBP? We have a forex traders’ guide here.
We look at Sterling regularly in the DailyFX Trading Global Markets Decoded podcasts that you can find here on Apple or wherever you go for your podcasts
--- Written by Martin Essex, Analyst and Editor
Feel free to contact me via the comments section below
