GBP/USD: post-NFP recovery stalls ahead of 1.22 handle

Having nearly retested multi-week lows, the GBP/USD pair staged a goodish recovery and refreshed daily tops near 1.2185 region in the post NFP USD sell-off.

The pair, however, seems to have stalled the recovery move ahead of the 1.2200 handle and has now retreated back below 1.2170 level. Spot accelerated the recovery move from 1.2135 level after the details from the influential US monthly jobs report showed a sluggish average hourly earnings growth, coming-in at 0.2% m-0-m vs 0.3% expected. 

Meanwhile, a much better-than-expected headline NFP print and drop in the unemployment rate failed to negate the earnings growth disappointment and triggered a corrective slide in the US treasury bond yields. The US Dollar profit-taking slide helped the pair to snap four consecutive days of losing streak and aim back towards reclaiming the 1.2200 handle. 

From the UK, the NIESR GDP estimate showed a growth of 0.6% in 3 months ending in February, down from a 0.8% in the three months ending in January, now seems to be collaborating towards capping the pair's recovery move.

Technical levels to watch

Any further recovery is likely to confront a strong resistance near the 1.2200 handle, above which a bout of short-covering is likely to accelerate the up-move towards 1.2235-40 resistance en-route 1.2270 hurdle. 

On the flip side, 1.2160-50 area now seems to protect immediate downside, which if broken is likely to drag the pair below multi-week lows support near 1.2135 level towards testing 1.2100 round figure mark.