GBP Surges on Dollar’s Fall As Unemployment Claims Rise Past Forecast

On Thursday, the GBP/USD pair found several aggressive bids and rose by about 150 points during the day. The emergence of new US dollar bears was seen as a key factor fueling the momentum. The disappointing release of US jobless claims data adds to the downward pressure on the US dollar.

The dollar has come back under some selling pressure since the European session and is strengthening after poor employment data. The weakness of the dollar puts the Canadian dollar in second place with the worst performance and the yen in third place.

The US dollar remained weak early in the North American session and pushed the GBP/USD pair to new highs around 1.3985 following US macro releases. The strong intraday momentum was driven solely by new bears around the US dollar. Sterling leads up again, followed by the Australian dollar and the kiwi. Euro and Swiss France are mixed as ECB protocols don’t give traders anything special.

The pound continues to be among the leaders of the week. Vaccination expectations in the UK continue to be a key driver for the currency. On Thursday, comments from Bank of England politicians did not prevent the GBP/USD rate from continuing to rise. Ramsden suggested there was room for further quantitative easing, while Sanders was not very positive.

U.S Unemployment Claims Rise Past Forecast
The number of initial claims for unemployment benefits in the United States rose 13,000 to 861,000 for the week ended February 13, higher than expected at 775,000. The four-week moving average of initial claims fell by -3.5 thousand to 883.3 thousand. In the week ended February 6, the number of ongoing claims fell from -64 thousand to 4,494 thousand.

Also in the US, the number of new homes being commissioned fell to 1.58 million years on year in January. Building permits rose to 1.88 million sq. M. The import price index rose 1.4% mom in January. The Philadelphia Fed survey fell to 23.1% in February. A slight increase in the number of jobless claims, in addition to a significant upward revision of data last week, indicates that the labor market recovery continues to be slow.

“Expectations of a moderate decrease in the number of applications for unemployment benefits this week did not materialize: the number of initial applications increased by 13 thousand. More worrisome was the upward revision of the previous week’s data. However, initial applications totaled 861K against 773K expectations, which is a clear signal that the labor market recovery is still trying to recover momentum. ”