GBP/USD plummets to lows, 1.40 mark back on sight

   •  Upbeat US data provide an additional boost to a goodish USD rebound. 
   •  GBP already weighed down by today’s poor retail sales data. 

The GBP/USD pair extended its retracement slide from 2-week tops and has now eroded a major part of previous session's strong up-move.

Currently trading around the 1.4030 region, down over 115-pips from an intraday high level of 1.4145, the pair continued losing ground following the release of stronger-than-expected US housing market and import price data. 

Today's upbeat US releases provided an additional boost to the ongoing US Dollar recovery move and further collaborated to the pair's retracement slide, triggered by softer UK consumer spending data. 

Despite a major pull-back, the pair still remains on track to post strong weekly gains, first in the previous three, as traders now look forward to the release of Prelim UoM Consumer Sentiment for some fresh impetus on the last trading day of the week. 

Technical outlook

Valeria Bednarik, American Chief Analyst at FXStreet writes: “Technically, the GBP/USD pair 4 hours chart shows that it remains in bullish territory, as the price remains well above a bullish 20 SMA, while technical indicators lost downward strength well into positive territory, and after correcting overbought conditions. Nevertheless, the pair is back below the 61.8% retracement of its latest daily decline around 1.4080, the first resistance and the level to regain for bulls to jump back in.”