GBP/USD Slides On Fed Expectations

The GBP/USD pair is down on the day. At 1.3345, cable is losing 0.45% after sliding from 1.3417 and reaching a low of 1.3317.

Traders are weighing the impact of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine against the Bank of England’s monetary policy. The BoE is set to hike for a third consecutive meeting despite the Russian invasion of Ukraine a week ago.

Ukraine calls for a ceasefire and humanitarian corridors to be developed to allow the evacuation of its citizens from the bombed cities.

As Russian troops have not made it to the Ukraine capital Kyiv but there are confirmed attacks on civilians which potentially puts the long process of prosecution of war crimes into motion. Already, as many as 1 million people have been forced to flee Ukraine, the United Nations high commissioner for refugees said late Wednesday.

The number of misplaced could reach as much as 4 million, the Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal say. Meanwhile, as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine entered its eighth day Thursday, the mayor of Kherson said the strategic port city in Ukraine’s south had been “captured” by Russian forces.

The apparent capture of Kherson, situated on the Dnieper River, marks the first major city to fall into Russian hands as Ukrainians continue to defend key hubs across their country. The focus has remained on a number of strategic cities, including the capital, Kyiv, Ukraine’s second-biggest city, Kharkiv, and another key port city, Mariupol.

As for data on Thursday, Britain’s services sector expanded at its fastest pace since June, according to the final IHS Markit/CIPS services Purchasing Managers Index. In the US, Omicron infections have fallen and this has seen the Jobless Claims data improve. The latest weekly data was considerably lower than expected at just 215,000 new claims. This comes before Friday’s Nonfarm Payrolls.

Employment likely continued to recover in February following an unexpectedly strong Jan report—despite the Omicron-led surge in COVID cases, analysts at Td Securities said.

Services in the US are underperforming. ”The US ISM services index was below expectations falling for the third consecutive month.

The Markit services index lifted in February but was still below expectations,” analysts at ANZ Bank said. ”Factory orders for January were stronger than expected and there were hefty upward revisions of the previous month’s data”.