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CFDs are complex financial instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. You should consider whether you understand how CFDs work, and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money. CFDs are complex financial instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. You should consider whether you understand how CFDs work, and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.

GBP/USD: Pound fails to outperform despite better than expected services PMI

Retail long bias nudges higher following better than expected US data.

GBP Source: Bloomberg

GBP/USD Technical analysis, overview, strategies, and levels

UK services PMI (Purchasing Managers Index) not only managed to beat expectations for the month of January with a 53.9 reading, but came in at a number unseen in over a year. The results aided the pound in relatively outperforming earlier in the session, with GBP/USD's price making a move closer to yesterday’s 1st Resistance level before strong US data sent the pair’s price lower for a breach of its 1st Support level. A lack of impacting data on the economic calendar out of the UK means the focus here will also shift towards the USD aspect of this pair to see how the latest US Non-Farm Payroll (NFP) figure will fare and will likely infuse this (and other USD-related pairs) with more volatility as we approach tomorrow's fundamental event.

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GBPUSD TA Source: IG charts

IG client* and CoT sentiment for GBP/USD

As it stands retail traders are holding a majority long bias of 69% having increased that bias a couple notches over yesterday’s heavy long 67%.

GBPUSD sentiment Source: IG charts

GBP/USD Chart with retail and institutional sentiment

GBPUSD chart Source: IG charts

*The percentage of IG client accounts with positions in this market that are currently long or short. Calculated to the nearest 1%, as of today morning 8am.


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