GBP/USD plummets to 1.3500 mark on mostly upbeat US employment details
- GBP/USD added to its heavy intraday losses and refreshed daily low in reaction to stellar NFP report.
- The US economy added 467K new jobs, while Average Hourly Earnings posted a strong MoM growth.
- The risk-off mood further benefitted the safe-haven greenback and contributed to the intraday slide.
The GBP/USD pair continued losing ground through the early European session and dived to the key 1.3500 psychological mark following the release of the US employment report.
As investors digested the hawkish Bank of England, the GBP/USD pair witnessed some profit-taking slide on Friday and snapped five days of the winning streak to a two-week high. The intraday selling picked up pace after the headline NFP print smashed market expectations and showed that the US economy added 467K jobs in January.
Adding to this, the previous month’s reading was also revised sharply higher from 199K reported earlier to 501K. Moreover, Average Hourly Earnings posted a strong 0.7% MoM and 5.7% YoY growth, which helped offset an unexpected uptick in the US unemployment rate and provided a much-needed respite to the US dollar bulls.
Apart from this, the prevalent risk-off mood – as depicted by a generally weaker trading sentiment around the equity markets – prompted aggressive short-covering around the safe-haven buck. This, in turn, was seen as a key factor behind the GBP/USD pair’s latest leg of a sudden fall over the past hour or so.