GBP/USD gained positive traction on Wednesday
The GBP/USD pair maintained its bid tone through the first half of the European session and was last seen trading near-daily tops, around the 1.3625-30 region. The pair managed to defend the 1.3600 round-figure mark and staged a modest recovery from three-week lows on Wednesday, snapping three successive days of the losing streak. Expectations for an imminent Bank of England interest rate hike move by the end of this year turned out to be a key factor that extended some support to the British pound. Apart from this, a subdued US dollar demand provided a modest lift to the GBP/USD, though the uptick lacked bullish conviction.
The impasse over the post-Brexit arrangements for Northern Ireland, along with worries that the UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson will trigger Article 16 held bulls from placing aggressive bets. This overshadowed a positive development, wherein France announced to delay the imposition of threatened sanctions on UK trade amid a row over post-Brexit fishing rights. The GBP/USD pair reacted little to an upward revision of the UK Services PMI to 59.1 for October from 58.0 estimated.