It's a quid-fest as sterling carves through the levels
GBPUSD brushes 1.5700, EURGBP tickles 0.7110 support, GBPJPY breaks 2014 highs. If it's got the Queens head on it it's doing well today
GBP/JPY is perhaps one of the bigger movers today and we're up over 200 pips from the lows
The highs are just holding below the 190 big figure but we are through the 2014 highs at 189.70 set in December
GBPJPY daily chart
Looking a bit wider at the weekly chart we can see that a break here opens the skylight for a move to the next possible resistance level at 192.61
GBPJPY weekly chart
From there the area round 196.70 and 197.50 are the next levels to watch ahead of the 61.8 fib at 199.80
I can't shake the feeling that the moves today are borne out of some relief that the UK economy may not maintain the poor Q1 GDP growth story, and will improve this quarter. It's been a similar reaction to the US housing starts data last week. However, retail sales is never a single reliable bellwether for the path of an economy.
The first test of the pounds rise today will be from the US data later. We have another round of housing data as well as the Markit manufacturing numbers and Philly Fed.
What I will say for these gains is that good US data might not have as great an effect on the pound as it might the euro, as on balance the market will see both the UK and US getting back on track. That might be of some comfort to pound longs but EUR traders should take note as the euro might feel the brunt of any positive data. That could also mean EURGBP taking out that 0.7100/10 level, if it hasn't already
