Ella 
In early Asian trading on Thursday, GBP/USD continued to rise to around 1.2688. GBP/USD’s gains are supported by weakness in the U.S. dollar following weak U.S. inflation data. Later in the day, U.S. building permits, new housing starts, U.S. initial jobless claims last week, Philadelphia Fed manufacturing index and industrial production will be released. In addition, Fed officials Barr, Harker, Mester and Bostic will speak on Thursday.
U.S. inflation slowed slightly in April. Data released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) on Wednesday showed that the U.S. consumer price index (CPI) rose at an annual rate of 3.4% in April, compared with an increase of 3.5% in March. The annual core inflation rate slowed to 3.6% in April from 3.8% in the previous month. Both the consumer price index and the core consumer price index rose 0.3% monthly in April. Weaker inflation data raised the possibility of a rate cut by the Federal Reserve in 2024, weighing on the dollar and boosting GBP/USD.
In addition, the final value of retail sales in April was unchanged from the previous value, with an increase of 3%, which was lower than the expected value of 0.4%.
In terms of sterling, UK employment data showed that job market conditions worsened for the third consecutive month, with the unemployment rate rising. Still, Bank of England (BOE) policymakers are concerned about high services inflation, which could hamper deflation. This has led to uncertainty about the prospect of interest rate cuts by the Bank of England.
