The British pound enjoyed three good purchasing managers’ indices in the past week – the last to come out was the most important. The services sector is very important in Britain. Last month was shocking – the score fell below the 50 point mark, meaning that this sector was squeezing. This goes hand in hand with the negative GDP.
But January was better, with the score rising up above 50 once again. GBP/USD rose towards the high resistance line of 1.63 before falling. The decline came on the fresh escalation in Egypt, and the fact that in the Euro-zone, Trichet didn’t raise his tone against inflation.
And now, US ISM Non-Manufacturing PMI scored 59.4 points, higher than expected, and this helps the US dollar.
GBP/USD is at 1.6140, above the support line of 1.6110.