GBP/USD rises as risk appetite floats higher heading into tense week

• GBP/USD climbed 0.3% on Monday, bolstered by a general uptick in market sentiment.
• Markets are tilted into the risk-on side ahead of a packed data docket.
• This week will culminate in key US NFP jobs data.

GBP/USD found room on the high end on Monday, kicking off a fresh trading week with another leg up the charts. Cable rose around three-tenths of one percent despite a general lack of meaningful data or headlines as investors continue to bank on a fresh round of interest rate cuts from the Federal Reserve (Fed) this month.

Tuesday will be dominated by US economic data, with a clear docket on the UK side. US ISM Manufacturing PMI figures from August will be dropping during the American market session, and median market forecasts are expecting a general uptick to 49.0 from 48.0. The response rate for PMI surveys is generally too low to stretch the final figure into an accurate sample size, thus rendering any conclusions drawn from the survey a moot point. However, the final figure will nonetheless be watched by investors.

US Nonfarm Payrolls (NFP) are due on Friday, and will dominate this week's general market water supply. The Federal Reserve (Fed) is barreling toward an interest rate cut on September 17 thanks to its sometimes-conflicting dual mandate of influencing interest rates to both bolster job creation and control inflation. A recent bout of softening US labor figures has investor hopes riding high that the Fed will brush off a recent uptick in inflation pressures and deliver a rate in a few weeks to prop up US employment numbers that took a sharp downward turn heading into the middle of the year.

GBP/USD price forecast

Bullish momentum underpinning GBP/USD has carried Cable up around 1.2% from its last swing low point near 1.3390, and the pair is now poised for a fresh challenge of the 1.3600 handle. The pair has closed in the green for all but two of the last seven straight market sessions, and has either closed flat or gained ground in all but eight daily sessions since August 1.

GBP/USD daily chart