12/18/2020 7:18:29 AM GMT | By Haresh Menghani
A combination of factors prompted some selling around GBP/USD on Friday.
Johnson’s comments tempered Brexit optimism and weighed on the sterling.
Softer risk tone benefitted the safe-haven USD and added to the selling bias.
The GBP/USD pair maintained its offered tone near mid-1.3500s and moved little following the release of UK monthly Retail Sales figures.
According to the data released by the UK Office for National Statistics (ONS), the headlines sales contracted by 3.8% MoM in November as against a 4.2% fall anticipated. The core retail sales, stripping the auto motor fuel sales, dropped -2.6% MoM as compared to a 3.3% decline expected. The readings marked a notable drop from the previous month s growth of 1.2% and 1.3%, respective, albeit did little to prompt any fresh selling around the GBP/USD pair.
12/18/2020 6:01:31 PM GMT
XAU/USD capitalized on persistent USD weakness this week.
FOMC s dovish tone and risk-positive mood weighed on the greenback.
100-day SMA at $1,905 aligns as key resistance.
XAU/USD pair climbed to its highest level in a month at $1,896 on Thursday as the selling pressure surrounding the greenback intensified throughout the week. Although the pair lost its bullish momentum on Friday, it settled around 1,880 and still ended up gaining more than 2% on a weekly basis.
What happened last week
The coronavirus vaccine rollout, Brexit optimism and heightened hopes for a US stimulus bill caused risk flows to dominate the financial markets and continued to hurt the greenback. Mirroring the broad-based USD weakness, the US Dollar Index, which tracks the buck’s performance against a basket of six major currencies, broke below 90 for the first time since April 2018. In the meantime, The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite both notched new all-time highs in the se
British Pound (GBP) Latest: GBP/USD Extending Gains, UK Inflation Falls Sharply
GBP price, Brexit news and UK inflation:
UK inflation dropped by far more than expected year/year last month, with the month/month rate falling into negative territory.
However, that has had little impact on GBP/USD, which remains firm as it has all week.
The main driver of GBP remains the post-Brexit trade talks between the EU and the UK, with traders still broadly optimistic that a deal can be reached.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen boosted sentiment Wednesday with some optimistic comments.
Sentiment could still change quickly though as further headlines hit the wires suggesting the two sides are either coming closer or moving further apart.
12/15/2020 5:01:26 AM GMT | By Anil Panchal
UK Jobs report overview
Early Tuesday, the UK’s Office for National Statistics (ONS) will release the November month Claimant Count figures together with the Unemployment Rate in the three months to October at 07:00 AM GMT. Although Brexit and coronavirus (COVID-19) are likely to keep the driver’s seat, the recent doubts over whether the BOE is geared towards the negative rates or not highlight the importance of today’s employment day for GBP/USD traders.
The UK labor market report is expected to show that the average weekly earnings, including bonuses, in the three months to October, to rise from the previous 1.3% to 2.2%, while ex-bonuses, the wages are seen improving from 1.9% to 2.6% during the stated period.
Stefania Fabrizio, Vivian Malta, Marina M. Tavares
New research has presented evidence that the gender gap in labour force participation in US has expanded during COVID-19 (Alon et al. 2020). This negative development is attributed to two factors – the disproportionate impact that the pandemic has had on sectors that tend to employ more women, and the increase in family caregiving responsibilities due to kindergarten and school closures that lay on working mothers’ shoulders. Both reasons keep women away from the labour force (Landivar et al. 2020).
The US is hardly the average labour market, however, both due to its size and its flexible employment regulation. We hence expand the analysis to several other advanced economies that have readily available data, by looking for trends in the labour force participation by women. We find that women’s labour force participation has declined during COVID-19 in Canada, Japan, South Korea, and the US, while it has been resilient to the