GBPJPY – 145.00 Hold Key For British Pound To Japanese Yen

Key Highlights

• The British Pound after a solid rise faced resistance near 146.70 against the Japanese Yen.
• There are two important bullish trend lines with support around 145.00-20 on the 4-hours chart of GBPJPY.
• Today in the UK, the British Retail Consortium (BRC) Like-For-Like Retail Sales for April 2017 registered a rise of 5.6%.
• Today in the US, the NFIB Business Optimism Index for April 2017 will be released, which is forecasted to decrease from 104.7.

GBPJPY Technical Analysis

The British Pound was in a major uptrend against the Japanese Yen, as it traded above 144.00. Later, the GBPJPY pair found sellers and now may approach a major support near 145.00.The pair after trading close to the 146.70 faced resistance and moved down. It is currently trading below 146.50, and may approach the 23.6% Fib retracement level of the last wave from 140.05 low to 146.68 high.Moreover, there are also two important bullish trend lines with support around 145.00-20 on the 4-hours chart. So, the 145.00 support zone holds a lot of significance for the current trend in GBPJPY. If the pair sustains a break, there can be another upside push above 146.70 in the near term.

UK’s BRC Like-For-Like Retail Sales

Recently in the UK, the British Retail Consortium (BRC) Like-For-Like Retail Sales for April 2017 was released by the British Retail Consortium. The market was expecting the changes in the actual value of retail sales to decrease by around 1% in April 2017, compared with the same month a year ago.The actual result was much better, as there was an increase in the sales by 5.6%. The report added that “On a total basis, sales rose 6.3% in April, against flat growth in April 2016. The performance is positively distorted by the timing of Easter and the highest since April 2011, another Easter distortion. This pulls the 3-month average to 2.0%, above the 12-month average of 1.3%”.The GBPJPY pair gained pace after the release, and currently retesting the 146.60-70 resistance.

Economic Releases to Watch Today

• Germany’s Industrial Production for March 2017 (MoM) - Forecast -0.5%, versus +2.2% previous.
• Germany’s Trade Balance for March 2017 - Forecast €20B, versus €21B previous.
• Germany’s Imports of goods and services March 2017 - Forecast +0.7%, versus -1.6% previous.
• Germany’s Exports of goods and services March 2017 - Forecast +0.1%, versus +0.8% previous.
• NFIB Business Optimism Index April 2017 - Forecast 103.5, versus 104.7 previous.