Sterling edges up ahead of UK retail data

The pound edged up from near 14-month lows on Thursday ahead of retail sales data which few investors expect to reverse a downward trend in the currency driven by angst over Brexit.

The pound edged up from near 14-month lows on Thursday ahead of retail sales data which few investors expect to reverse a downward trend in the currency driven by angst over Brexit.

At 0800 GMT, sterling was up 0.1 percent at $1.2706. It touched $1.2662 on Tuesday, its weakest since June 2017 after falling for a 12th consecutive day against a rallying dollar.

Against the euro, the pound traded flat 89.40 pence per euro .

Year-on-year retail sales data for the month of July, due at 0830 GMT, are expected to show a rise of 3 percent, according to a Reuters poll, up from 2.9 percent in the previous month.

The pound is stuck in a downward trend because of "UK-specific risk premium capturing the obvious heightened no-deal Brexit risks and a global risk premium stemming from geopolitical uncertainties," Viraj Patel, a currency analyst at ING, said in a note.

"Both have left GBP/USD trading at a significant discount from short-term fundamentals – with no amount of UK data providing support," he said.

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