The UK services sector is doing well: a score of 54.9 points was recorded in October, slightly better than expected.
GBP/USD rises to 1.5430, acknowledging the improvement but not going wild.
Markit’s last and most important purchasing managers’ index was expected to show an improvement in the services sector: from 53.3 to 54.5 points in October.
GBP/USD was trading at 1.5420 towards the release, steady in range. EUR/GBP was on the slide, at 0.7080.
Yesterday, the construction PMI came out at 58.8 as expected while Monday’s manufacturing PMI beat expectations with 55.5 points.
Cable has a clear range of 1.5470 to 1.55, with further levels at 1.53 and 1.56.
Tomorrow is the pound’s “Super Thursday†– the Bank of England releases its rate decision, meeting minutes and the Quarterly Inflation Report. We will see how close a rate hike is in the UK.
More: Fed and BoE interest rate hike – all eyes on the data? GBP/USD: Play the range