The US dollar lost its upside momentum after recording lower losses in the previous session, and saw the pound jump higher to reach its latest high of almost three years.
The decline in the greenback dollar was shocking given the sell-off in US stocks that normally drove the currency. However, due to a slight decline in 10-year bond yields, the USD failed to maintain its strength.
Moreover, the decline was driven by the latest published data, where unexpected unemployment claims were weaker than expected by recording a surge of 861,000 from 793,000 last week.
The depreciation of the greenback has benefited the pound sterling soaring ahead of today's UK retail sales, manufacturing and services data.
Investors are beginning to speculate on whether the GBP / USD pair will break the 1.4000 wall following the release of economic data this afternoon despite the fact that there are expected readings to be slower due to the implementation of coronavirus restrictions in the UK.
Meanwhile, the euro is slowly climbing to the price level of 1.21000 as the market is also waiting for the release of the European Zone manufacturing and services PMI data this afternoon.
On the other hand, the Aussie dollar weakened slightly after trading higher on Thursday driven by stronger employment data. However, Australian retail sales data released this morning, unfortunately caused the Aussie dollar to fail to maintain its consolidation.
