GBP/USD holding comfortably above 1.29 handle

The GBP/USD pair held on to its daily gains beyond the 1.2900 handle, albeit has retreated few pips from daily tops touched in the past hour. 

Currently trading around 1.2920 region, the pair extended its recovery move from one-week lows touched on Friday amid a follow through greenback retracement led by last week's disappointing retail sales data and inflation figures. 

With investors moving past last week's disappointing UK manufacturing data and absent hawkish signals from the BoE, the US Dollar price-dynamics is turning out to be an exclusive driver of the pair's movement through early European session on Monday.

Meanwhile, a modest recovery in the US treasury bond yields, always backed by growing expectations for an eventual Fed rate-hike action in June, seems to have kept a lid on the pair's up-move, at least for the time being. 

In absence of any market moving economic releases from the UK, traders would now take cues from the release of Empire State Manufacturing Index, due later during the NA session. 

Investors’ focus, however, would remain glued to this week's important macroeconomic releases from the UK, including inflation figures and monthly employment report, which would help determine the next leg of directional move for the major.

   •  GBP/USD rangebound between 1.2830/1.3000 – UOB

Technical levels to watch

Immediate resistance is pegged near 1.2945-50 region, above which the pair is likely to dart towards conquering the key 1.30 psychological mark, with some intermediate hurdle near 1.2975-80 area. On the flip side, retracement back below the 1.2900 handle now seems to find some support near 1.2885-80 zone (session low), which if broken could accelerate the slide towards 1.2850-30 support area.