GBP/USD: BoE Left Interest Rates At 0.5%, Pound Trading Higher This Morning

GBP/USD: BoE Left Interest Rates At 0.5%, Pound Trading Higher This Morning

For the 24 hours to 23:00 GMT, GBP fell 0.28% against the USD and closed at 1.6048, as investors were disappointed by downbeat comments from European Central Bank President, Mario Draghi and after the Bank of England left its monetary policy unchanged.

Yesterday, the Monetary Policy Committee of the BoE headed by Governor, Mervyn King, voted at a meeting to leave the benchmark interest rates at 0.50% in December, the lowest level since the bank was established in 1694 and retained the size of the quantitative easing programme at £375 billion.

In the UK economic news, the total trade deficit widened to £3.644 billion in October, following a revised £2.493 billion deficit recorded in September. Additionally, visible trade deficit widened to £9.539 billion in October, following a revised deficit of £8.439 billion in September. Separately, the seasonally adjusted Halifax house price index grew 1.0% (MoM) in November, faster than the market expectation for a 0.2% rise and following the revised 0.1% drop in October.

In the Asian session, at GMT0400, the pair is trading at 1.6054, with the GBP trading marginally higher from yesterday’s close.

The pair is expected to find support at 1.6018, and a fall through could take it to the next support level of 1.5982. The pair is expected to find its first resistance at 1.6109, and a rise through could take it to the next resistance level of 1.6165.