GBP/USD plummets to 2-week lows, below mid-1.2800s post-BOE's Broadbent

Having posted a session high near the 1.2930 region, the GBP/USD pair ran through fresh offers and tumbled to two-week lows, below mid-1.2800s.

The latest leg of sharp slide over the past hour could be attributed to BOE MPC member Broadbent’s speech, which failed to touch upon monetary policy or economic outlook and seems to have disappointed market participants expecting some hawkish comments. 

Moreover, market seems to have digested today's British Retail Consortium (BRC) data that portrayed a slightly rosier picture for retail sales and provided some early respite for the British Pound. 

Meanwhile, the ongoing up-move in the US Treasury bond yields continued underpinning the US Dollar demand and further collaborated to the pair's sharp reversal to session lows near 1.2875-70 region.

Next on tap would be the US economic docket, featuring the release of JOLTS Job Openings and Final Wholesale Inventories ahead of Federal Reserve Governor Lael Brainard's scheduled speech about normalizing central banks' balance sheets.

Technical outlook

Valeria Bednarik, Chief Analyst at FXStreet writes, “the 4 hours chart shows that it has been rejected from a Fibonacci resistance, the 23.6% retracement of the latest bullish run, while the 20 SMA maintains its bearish slope above the current level.  In the same chart, the Momentum indicator aims modestly higher below its 100 level, but the RSI indicator resumed its decline, this last anticipating  a bearish extension, particularly on a break below the 1.2860 price zone, where the pair has its next Fibonacci support and Monday's low.”