GBP/USD inches closer to multi-month highs ahead of Fed speakers

After erasing a portion of its daily earnings to 1.2920, the GBP/USD pair caught a fresh buying wave, approaching its seven-month high of 1.2964, which was set last week. As of writing, the pair was trading at 1.2961, up 0.3% on the day.

The US Dollar Index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six trade-weighted peers, spiked to a session high at 98.83 right after the nonfarm payrolls from the U.S. came in above expectations. However, the bullish momentum has quickly faded away, pushing the index to its lowest level since Trump's election victory in November as the strength of the labor market in the U.S. was not a big surprise to the investors. As the moment the index is at 98.54, losing 0.07% on the day.

Today's data revealed that the nonfarm payrolls in the U.S. rebounded sharply to 211K in April from 79K (revised from 98K) in March. Furthermore, the unemployment rate eased to 4.4% in April, beating the consensus of 4.6%, while the average hourly earnings, which influences the wage inflation, rose by 0.3%, meeting the general expectations.

• US: Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 211,000 in April

In the remaining of the NA session, FOMC members will be giving speeches on the monetary policy at a panel. Vice Chair S.Fischer will be the first one to cross the wires ahead of San Francisco Fed's J.Williams (2018 voter, hawkish) and Boston Fed's E.Rosegren. Fed Chair Yellen is also scheduled to speak later in the session but her remarks are likely to be ignored by the markets as she won't be giving statements on the policy path.

• Fed speak in focus today- Rabobank
• We expect the Fed to hike in July and December - Danske Bank

Technical outlook

Above 1.2964 (Apr. 28 high), the pair could aim for 1.30 (psychological level) and 1.3055 (Sept. 28 high). To the downside, supports could be seen at 1.2900 (psychological level), 1.2840 (Apr. 27 low) and finally 1.2760 (Apr. 21 low).