The Pound strengthened against the Dollar, breaking decidedly above an important level of resistance at the 1.52 area and hitting its highest level versus the US Dollar since February 25th. The catalyst for the move was a much better employment report – the claimant count – for the month of February. The number of Britons claiming unemployment benefits fell by 32.3K when forecasts had that figure rising 8.2K. Not only that, but the data for January was revised sharply down to show a much smaller 5.3K new claimants compared to the originally reported 23.5K. Today’s figures therefore show some solid numbers for the labor market in the UK.

Official Release Provided by: Office of National Statistics

There have been concerns that the UK recovery could falter and that it may dip back into a double dip recession. Those worries had pressured the Pound until it had dropped to a low of 1.48 in late February. Therefore negative data, on the UK side, had been priced into the pair. We had started a counter rally to the Pound’s fall during March, but prior to the employment release we had moved tentetatilvey above the aforementioned 1.52 area as resistance, and had moved down to test it as resistance. Following the better-than-exected release, the GBP/USD pair surged higher in a general environmnet of risk appetite and greenback weakness.