GBP/USD is edging higher toward 1.3330 in the second half of the day on Thursday as the greenback stays under modest selling pressure. The US Department of Labor reported that there were 222,000 initial claims for unemployment benefits last week. GBP/USD has started to edge higher after closing the previous three trading days in the negative territory but could find it hard to gather momentum in the absence of fundamental drivers and high-tier macroeconomic data releases.

On Wednesday, the greenback managed to hold its footing despite falling US Treasury bond yields. Hawkish comments from Fed officials helped the dollar find demand. FOMC Chairman Jerome Powell repeated that it was appropriate to consider a faster taper. On a similar note, "a quicker taper gives the Fed room to hike earlier if needed," said Cleveland Fed President Loretta Mester.

BULLISH AND BEARISH CONDITIONS/ POSSIBILITIES :

If the pair passes the resistance of the 200-hour simple moving average at 1.3340, the likely target for a potential surge would be the resistance zone at 1.3364/1.3371. The zone kept the GBP/USD down during the first part of this week's trading. Meanwhile, note that the 200-hour SMA caused the recent decline to the weekly S1 simple pivot point, which is located at 1.3264.However, if the 200-hour SMA pushes the pair down, it could look for support in the 50 and 100-hour simple moving averages, which have shown to be capable of impacting the rate for short periods. Below the SMAs, note the previous two times passed support zone at 1.3278/1.3300. Namely, the lower border of the zone appears to have still caused two surges on Wednesday and Thursday. Further below, the weekly S1 weekly simple pivot point provides support at 1.3264.

GBPUSD Lacks Hawkish Momentum

Dec 02 2021