Solid News

The GBP/USD pair is trading with multidirectional dynamics, consolidating near 1.1945 and keeping close to the local lows of February 17, updated at the end of last week against the backdrop of the publication of strong macroeconomic statistics from the US.

New Home Sales in January rose by 7.2% after revising the previous figure from 2.3% to 7.2%, while analysts' forecasts suggested an increase of 2.5%. Personal Spending of American citizens added 1.8% after -0.1% in the previous month, while experts expected a positive trend of 1.3%, and Personal Income adjusted from 0.3% to 0.6%, not reaching the expected 0.9%.

In turn, some support for the pound on Friday was provided by macroeconomic statistics from the UK. Consumer Confidence index from Gfk Group in February rose from -45.0 points to -38.0 points, which turned out to be much better than market expectations at the level of -43.0 points. The growth of consumer confidence indicates a relative stabilization of the situation in the British economy, which may signal in favor of a further increase in interest rates by the Bank of England. Market forecasts suggest an increase in the rate from the current 4.0% to 4.6% by the end of the summer of this year.

Bollinger Bands in D1 chart demonstrate a slight decrease. The price range expands from below, making way for new local lows for the "bears". MACD is declining keeping a weak sell signal (located below the signal line). Stochastic shows a more confident decline, but at the moment it is rapidly approaching its lows, indicating risks of the pound being oversold in the ultra-short term.

Resistance levels: 1.2000, 1.2084, 1.2150, 1.2192. | Support levels: 1.1900, 1.1800, 1.1700, 1.1600.