GBP/USD keeps the red near 1.2800 handle, 2-week lows post-Carney

• Two BoE MPC members voted for interest-rate cut and weighed on the GBP.
• The selling pressure remained unabated after Carney’s post-meeting presser.

The post-BoE selling pressure around the British Pound dragged the GBP/USD pair to fresh two-week lows, with bears now looking to extend the downfall further below the 1.2800 handle.
 
Having failed to capitalize on its intraday uptick, the pair met with some fresh supply near the 1.2880 resistance zone and drifted into negative territory in the wake of a more dovish BoE interest-rate decision. As was widely expected, the BoE kept interest rates unchanged, but two MPC members – Jonathan Haskel and Michael Saunders unexpectedly voted for a rate cut.

Weighed down by dovish BoE decision

The British Pound weakened across the board in reaction to the surprising dissenters. The selling bias remained unabated after the BoE Governor Mark Carney – in the post-meeting press conference – said that risks to the UK growth remained skewed to the downside, suggesting that the UK central bank might be shifting closer to easing monetary policy to support the economy.
 
This coupled with a modest US Dollar uptick further collaborated to the pair's heavily offered tone through the early North-American session on Thursday. Against the backdrop of renewed US-China trade optimism, a strong intraday upsurge in the US Treasury bond yields helped revive the USD demand, though the pair now seemed to show some resilience below the 1.2800 handle.
 
Hence, it will be prudent to wait for some strong follow-through selling before traders start positioning for any further near-term depreciating move back towards challenging the 1.2700 round-figure mark with some intermediate support near the 1.2745-50 region.

Technical levels to watch