GBP/USD breaks above 100-day SMA; heading to 1.5838 on strong data

GBP/USD has broken above the 1.5786 weak resistance (100-day SMA) and is heading towards the key 1.5838 medium-term resistance, as predicted by IBT FX on Monday. The level is also suggested by the upper Bollinger band on 4-hour chart.

The British pound rose against the greenback mainly helped by a stronger-than-expected manufacturing data released at 9:30 GMT. At 12:59 pm, the pair was at 1.5780, up from Monday's close of 1.5716. The pair rose as high as 1.5820 intra-day.

Bernanke's recent remarks about the likelihood of expanding the $600 billion asset buyback by the Federal Reserve is also weighing in the market as dollar-negative.

Manufacturing production rose 0.6 percent in October compared to September and 5.8 percent on the year, according to the UK's National Statistics. Analysts were expecting a 0.3 percent rise on month.

US October consumer credit data is due later in the New York session, which may impact the pair. Analysts widely expect the credit disbursals to fall by $1 billion compared with a rise of $2.15 billion $2,411 billion in September.