British pound retreated against strong US dollar

On Wednesday the sterling tumbled against the US dollar, as strong support was provided for the greenback after a series of economic data from the United States gave a breath of optimism for economy.

GBP/USD took a gradual slide to hit a session low at 1.5367 at 8:55 GMT. The cross erased 0.36% for the day. Support was likely to be found at June 24th low, 1.5342, while resistance was to be encountered at June 24th high, 1.5464.

US Department of Commerce reported on Tuesday, that Durable Goods Orders in the United States rose by 3.6% in May, exceeding forecasts of a 3.0% increase rate, and confirming the rate, registered during April.

Another report showed, that S&P/Case-Shiller Composite-20 Home Price Index in US registered a 12.05% jump in April on annual basis, as this was the sharpest rate of increase since the beginning of statistical research and above expectations of a 10.60% increase.

In addition, it became clear that US Consumer Confidence increased to the highest level since January 2008 in June, reaching the reading of 81.4, far above expectations of a value at 75.0.

Meanwhile, fears over a credit contraction in China were eased, after the country’s central bank made clear on Tuesday that it was acting in order to boost financial institutions with liquidity. According to statement on Chinese central bank’s website, it provided certain institutions with liquidity in order exchange rates on the money market to be stabilized. The bank will use short-term pro-liquidity operations and standing lending tools to encourage commercial banks in the country to bolster their liquidity management.

At the same time, UK government bonds rose for the first time in five days after Bank of England policymaker David Miles said that officials should not put their focus too much on the exit from stimulus programs, because economies might be still in need of more support. 10-year gilt yields decreased from near the highest level in almost 20 months after outgoing BOE Governor Mervyn King said on Tuesday, that tighter monetary policy is still some way off, as imparted by Bloomberg.

The Bank of England was expected to release its financial stability report later on Wednesday, while finance ministers from the European Union were holding a meeting at Economic and Financial Affairs Council in Brussels. The United States was to release revised data on the Gross Domestic Product during Q1.

Pound slipped lower against the euro as well, as EUR/GBP rose by 0.17% to 0.8496.