GBP/USD: picking up and testing recent static highs sub 1.2700 still

Currently, GBP/USD is trading at 1.2655, down -0.02% on the day, having posted a daily high at 1.2663 and low at 1.2655.

GBP/USD is up to test a key resistance level with some renewed bullishness on the back of the recent bill passed by parliament in respect to Article 50. MPs overnight voted by a majority of 384 to allow Prime Minister Theresa May to get Brexit negotiations under way. However, the bill will now face a little more scrutiny in the Commons and the House of Lords before it can become law. PM May set a deadline of 31st March for invoking Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty so that official negotiations with the EU can start. The bill returns to the Commons next week.

Market wrap: US dollar supported on bullish US data - Westpac

Elsewhere, the US data overnight was more positive than the recent run in GDP and durable goods. The data comes ahead of this week's nonfarm payrolls and if the ADP report was sin anything to go by, along with the manufacturing jobs picking up, it could be a decent number. "The employment index of the manufacturing ISM survey picked up sharply this month, and with oil and gas rig counts picking up, employment in the extraction industries is also likely to be gathering pace and could help to deliver a very respectable jobs growth figure this Friday," explained analysts at ING, adding, 

In the end, wage growth will likely be a key focus of this Friday's labour report, and here, the news will look less good, but only due to base effects. Any dip in annual wages growth for the Jan report will almost certainly be reversed in the Feb report, due out before the next FOMC meeting "

US dollar index erases daily gains after FOMC statement

Next up, BoE, but . . . BoE likely to remain on  hold for the next 12 months - Danske Bank

GBP/USD levels

The corrective move has run its course for now and would allow for further strength to the 1.2776 December high, noted analysts at Commerzbank, suggesting, " Between here and 1.2836 lies several Fibonacci retracements and major resistance and we suspect that it will struggle here, adding, " We suspect that prices will need to go sub 1.2250 in order to alleviate immediate upside pressure. Support at 1.2250 guards the 1.1988/80 recent low."