The Sterling pound today rallied higher against the US dollar driven by the dominant risk-off market sentiment, which triggered a sell-off in the greenback. The GBP/USD currency pair today rallied higher as investors reacted to the Bank of England‘s latest monetary policy decisions.
The GBP/USD currency pair today rallied from a low of 1.1818 in the early London session to a high of 1.2181 in the American session and was near these highs at the time of writing.
The currency pair traded sideways at the start of today’s session before spiking higher in the early London session. The pair’s spike coincided with the release of the disappointing UK’s retail sales data for February. According to the Office for National Statistics, headline retail sales in Britain fell 0.3% versus the expected 0.2% growth, while core retail sales contracted 0.5% missing analysts estimates of a 0.2% decline. The weak data could not derail the pair, which kept rallying after the BoE’s Monetary Policy Committee unanimously voted to leave interest rates unchanged at 0.1% boosting the pound.
The currency pair’s rally was also boosted by the weak greenback which fell due to the upbeat investor risk appetite after the Federal Reserve initiated its open-ended quantitative easing operations. The high US initial jobless claims numbers released by the Department of Labor compounded the dollar’s woes.
The currency pair’s future performance is likely to be affected by geopolitical events and COVID-19 headlines.
The GBP/USD currency pair was trading at 1.2147 as at 17:58 GMT having rallied from a low of 1.1818. The GBP/JPY currency pair was trading at 132.98 having risen from a low of 130.62.
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Pound Rallies on Upbeat Sentiment and Hawkish BoE Rate Decision
