FxWirePro: EUR/GBP extends range trade, awaits UK retail sales and ECB policy announcement for direction
Thursday, April 21, 2016 6:33 AM UTC
- EUR/GBP on track for a second consecutive week of declines. Pair has slipped below key trendline support at 0.7895.
- Poor labour markets data and household confidence released on Wednesday largely ignored. Markets wary ahead of ECB policy meeting.
- While no changes to policy are expected, markets will still be paying close attention to the statement and the comments in President Draghi’s accompanying press conference.
- Foreign exchange markets will be particularly interested to see if Draghi reiterates that the ECB does not expected to reduce rates any further following the measures introduced last month.
- Focus shall also be on UK monthly retail sales data due later during the day. UK retail sales are expected to show modest declines, but remain solid – however recent data has been surprising lower.
- Technicals are biased lower, the pair is likely to drift lower towards testing the cloud top support, currently near 0.7780
- Immediate resistance is located at 0.7899, ahead of 0.79 and then 0.7915 (trendline).