FX.co ★ Global macro overview for 10/02/2016

Global macro overview for 10/02/2016:

Following the disappointing Christmas period for the UK retailers the new year kicked off with a strong start. The UK retail spending growth hit the highest level in four month in January according to British Retail Consortium. It rose 3.3% last month compared with the reporting period a year ago, up from a 1.0% gain in December. The growth was mostly contributed by furniture and home appliances sales. The second boost could be seen in clothing and footwear sales. The report revealed that the UK customers continued to spend freely despite a gloomier global economic outlook and recent downward revised short-term outlook for both inflation and economic growth in the UK.

From the technical point of view, the GBP/USD pair is trading above the short-term descending golden trend line, but still in the middle of the range. We can observe that the price is still moving towards higher highs and higher lows, so the recent upward pullback in the downtrend still might have some room to go up. Nevertheless, any breakout below the important support level of 1.4350 would bring bears back in control.