The GBP/USD pair witnessed some selling during the early European session and dropped to the lower end of its weekly trading range, around the 1.3860 region in the last hour. Following a brief consolidation through the early part of the trading action on Friday, the pair met with some fresh supply and extended the previous day's retracement slide from weekly tops. The GBP/USD pair continued with its struggle to find acceptance above the key 1.4000 psychological mark and witnessed a dramatic turnaround on Thursday amid the Powell-inspired rally in the US dollar.
The Fed Chair Jerome Powell – speaking at an online event hosted by the Wall Street Journal – said that the recent surge in the US Treasury bond yields was not a disorderly move. Powell's remarks disappointed some investors anticipating immediate action to curb a sharp rise in long-term yields. This, in turn, triggered a sell-off in the fixed income market and boosted the USD demand.