GBP Deepens Losses After UK Jobs, BoE

GBP loses its luster after UK jobless claims come out much worse at 12.4K vs 0.700K expected. This is the worst reading since February 2010. To make things worse, March reading was revised up from 0.7K to 6.4K, which points to a significant weakening in the labor market. Nevertheless, unemployment rate has improved from 7.8% to 7.7% while the market expected worsening to 7.9%.

Another important UK news came in form of BoE MPC minutes. As

expected, voting pattern remained unchanged 6-3 in favor of keeping

rates steady. Rumors that Martin Weale had changed his vote proved

false as he did vote for a rate hike again. QE will continue to stay

at GBP 200B.

On the back of labor market disappointment GBPUSD loses all of its

yesterdays gains as it trades full cent off yesterday's highs and is

currently trading near session lows at 1.6170.

See Ashraf's GBPUSD chart in Monday's Premium piece, warning of 1.6120 being the confluence support of May Trendline & 100 dma here: http://www.ashraflaidi.com/products/sub01/access/?a=425

Minutes from April FOMC meeting due at 2:00 pm EST could shed some light onto QE2 exit strategy. Considering the news conference that Ben Bernanke had right after the April FOMC meeting it is not very likely that todays minutes could shock the market with a big surprise.

USD is consolidating yesterdays losses and most currencies are trading near their yesterdays highs. It would be necessary to see another down day and another weak closing to turn the recent trend toward USD strength around and shift bias down.

See Ashraf's TECHNICAL INTERMARKET PARAMETERS on this piece ($SPX, DOW-30, FTSE-100, RUSSELL 2000, GOLD, OIL, EURUSD)

http://www.ashraflaidi.com/products/sub01/access/?a=428

By PU - AshrafLaidi.com Staff