GBP/USD is medium term bullish say Barclays

Yesterday, the GBP strengthened against the USD by 0.69 pct, to close at $1.5130.

On the agenda for the US dollar today

US Q1 GDP (saar), pending home sales for April and initial jobless claims are also released today. Our global team expect the GDP figures to be revised upwards in line with a modest softening of imports.

The recovery in the US housing market is also expected to be reflected in a 2.0% m/m pick-up in pending sales.

Initial jobless claims, released for the week ending May 24 are expected to repeat the previous week's reading of 340k.

We remain bullish on the US dollar say Barclays

The month end is tipped to be a tough one for the US dollar according to Hamish Pepper at Barclays:

"The USD rally took a bit of a breather through the New York and Asia sessions, with no signficant data releases out of the US.

"With month-end around the corner and global markets having largely underperformed the US, it is likely that rebalancing of currency hedges will be USD negative. We remain USD bullish over the medium term, however, and would view any dips as buying opportunities."

The near-term outlook for the pound to US dollar is thus bullish.