GBP/USD: Friday's review

On Friday, the US dollar managed to restrain persistent buyers of the pound by forming a primary pullback in the market. It was the first time since the previous week began.

Important economic events in the calendar:

UK's volume of retail sales data was released, where a decline of -3.8% in November was recorded. This is still very strong, although they expected a decline even more, that is, to -4.2%. In annual terms, retail sales declined from 5.8% to 2.4%, against the forecasted decline to 2.8%.

The pound sterling continued to decline after the publication of UK statistics.

The main incentive for the sale of the British currency was the well-known Brexit process, where trade negotiations officially stopped, which affected the expectations of a positive result on the deal between Britain and the European Union.

What happened on the trading chart?

The value of the pound has consistently declined, where the minimum value for last Friday was $ 1.3471. Considering the rapid growth in the period earlier, the pullback is insignificant and the pound's overbought status still remains in the market.

EUR/USD: Friday's review

The Euro slightly pulled back from the local high of 1.2272 last Friday, where a clear overbought signal was observed at such a high value, which was repeatedly written about in our analytical reviews.

Important economic events in the calendar:

There were no statistics published in Europe and the US. Thus, the focus was on information flow and technical analysis.

The information flow combined two important topics: the prospects for the approval of the stimulus package by the US Congress and the interrupted Brexit trade negotiations, but since the decision on two issues was awaited during the weekend, the quote stood in one place.

What happened on the trading chart?

There was a slight decline of about 40 pips, where sell positions were considered below 1.2250, with a priority level of 1.2200.

Trading recommendation for GBP/USD on December 21

The publication of significant statistics is not expected today in terms of the economic calendar. The main driver of speculative hype was the information flow associated with the ambiguous position on the Brexit trade negotiations, as well as the new strain of COVID-19.

The new trading week began with a price gap of about 117 points, just due to the negative information flow. Speculators continue to move along a downward course, where coordinates of 1.3300 have already been broken.

Given the high degree of overbought pound and the negative information flow, it can be assumed that the downward interest will continue in the market towards the coordinates of 1.3200-1.3135.

Trading recommendation for EUR/USD on December 21

Important statistics for Europe and the United States is not expected to be published today, so the information flow described above will be the main impulse for market's movement.

Analyzing the current trading chart, the price gap is also observed for the European currency, but its scale is several times smaller – around 30 points. Therefore, the downward interest is likely to remain in the market, particularly towards the levels of 1.2120-1.2060.