GBPUSD: Sterling Pushes Higher after Retail Sales

It was another bullish day for the British Pound on Thursday and the GBPUSD pair rose to fresh two-month highs on Thursday as it was seen 0.65% stronger during the London session, changing hands at 1.3225.

Earlier in the day, retail sales came out above analysts' expectations, which helped sterling to accelerate higher. The yearly basis slowed from 3.8% to 3.3% (but above 2.3% expected), while the monthly change also weakened to 0.3% from 0.9% (but again above consensus of a -0.2% print).

Moreover, the ex-fuel indicators also decelerated, but managed to beat expectations. For some reason, investors focused on the "beating the consensus" part rather than on the "weakening" part and bought the pound afterward.

Later in the day, the usual Thursday's US jobless claims are due and are seen rising slightly, however, claims are still near 40-year lows so there should not be any elevated volatility afterward.

Finally, US existing home sales for the month of August will be released and the market expects a 0.3% monthly gain from 5.34 million houses annually to 5.35 million houses annually. Again, not a big deal for investors.

Wednesday's housing starts also improved, but more significantly, and rose 9.2% in August from 1.174 million new houses annually to 1.282 million new houses annually.

Sentiment remains positive for the GBPUSD pair and therefore we could see a continuation of this rally.