GBP/USD continues to juggle around 1.2440 ahead of UK Retail Sales

• GBP/USD is consolidating around 1.2440 as investors await UK Retail Sales for fresh impetus.
• The overall market mood is risk-averse, however, a stock-specific action in S&P500 is highly active.
• UK Retail Sales are expected to contract by 0.5% in March than expansion by 1.2% in February.

The GBP/USD pair is continuously oscillating in a narrow range around 1.2440 in the Tokyo session. The Cable is struggling to find a decisive move as investors are awaiting the release of the United Kingdom Retail Sales data for further guidance.  

A flat-to-positive performance has been recorded for the S&P500 futures in the Asian session. US equities were beaten down on Thursday amid mixed earnings from the banking sector and weak revenue guidance from Tesla. The overall market mood is risk-averse, however, a stock-specific action is highly active.

Quarterly earnings from the US banking sector have been a mixed bag this time as JP Morgan Chase and Morgan Stanley joined with companies beating Wall Street estimates while Goldman Sachs reported poor figures. However, it conveys that the overall US banking system is resilient.

The US Dollar Index (DXY) is demonstrating a lackluster performance around 101.80, shifting its focus toward the Federal Reserve (Fed)’s monetary policy meeting, which is scheduled in the first week of May. A consecutive 25 basis point (bps) rate hike is expected from Fed chair Jerome Powell as US inflation has highly diverged from desired levels.

Cleveland Federal Reserve President Loretta Mester reiterated on Thursday that the Fed has more work to do with inflation in the US staying too high, per Reuters. He further added, "Fed will need to hike policy rate to over 5% and hold there for a while."

On the Pound Sterling front, after higher-than-projected inflationary figures and the labor cost index, investors are shifting their focus toward Retail Sales data. As per the estimates, UK Retail Sales contracted by 0.5% in March than expansion by 1.2% in February. While the contraction in annual Retail Sales will decline to 3.1% from the former pace of contraction at 3.5%.