GBP/USD bulls aim for 1.2900 amid risk appetite recovery

• GBP/USD halts downside turnaround, finds another green day.
• UK GDP and industrial activity meet or beat expectations, US Retail Sales surge.
• UK Retail Sales and US Consumer Sentiment on the docket for Friday.

GBP/USD found the gas pedal on Thursday after a steeper-than-expected recovery in US Retail Sales pushed Cable back into the high end. Market sentiment rebounded on the day after fears of a possible US recession were cooled by US data beating expectations, and the Pound Sterling caught additional bullish momentum from UK Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth meet expectations and UK Manufacturing Production handily exceeding forecasts in July. 

Coming up on Friday, UK Retail Sales are expected to rebound from a recent downswing. MoM Retail Sales in July are forecast to rise to 0.5% after the previous month’s -1.2% contraction, with the YoY figure expected to surge to 1.4% from the previous -0.2% contraction. On the US side, the University of Michigan’s Consumer Sentiment Survey Index is expected to show an improvement in consumer economic expectations, with the figure forecast to tick up to 66.9 from an eight-month low of 66.4.

GBP/USD technical outlook

Cable’s bullish recovery on Thursday gave the pair the help it needed to remain on the high side of the 50-day Exponential Moving Average (EMA) 1.2787. GBP/USD caught a technical bounce after hitting the 1.2800 handle early Thursday, but bulls ran out of steam just before they could chalk in a fresh two-week high. Intraday price action is churning just north of 1.2850.

GBP/USD daily chart