US CREDIT UPDATE: MNI US REITs Week in Review

• Asked if there are upside risks to the labor market given apparently strong economic activity: "that would be be great, we'd love that to happen."
• He notes that consumption is coming in stronger than expected (apparently in reference to this week's retail sales release), and "also a fairly narrow sector is producing a lot of economic activity, which is the the AI build out, and, business investment.,, we did move up the median for growth for this year between the June and September SEP. And really, the inflation and labor market didn't change much. It's really the risks that we're seeing to the labor market that were the focus of today's decision."

Powell says it wasn't just the payrolls data that shifted the Committee into supporting cuts since the July meeting:

"a wide assessment that the situation has changed with respect to the labor market... I think that the new data that we've had, and it's not just payrolls, it's other things as well, suggest that there really is meaningful downside risk."

He also says it's "not obvious what to do" with policy: "it's not a bad economy or anything like that. We've seen much more challenging economic times, but from a policy standpoint, the standpoint of what we're trying to accomplish, it's challenging to know what what to do. There are, as I mentioned earlier, there are no risk free paths. Now it's not incredibly obvious what to do."

• RES 4: 1.3893 1.236 proj of the Aug 1 - 14 - Sep 3 price swing     
• RES 3: 1.3789 High Jul 1 and key resistance
• RES 2: 1.3753 High Jul 2
• RES 1: 1.3726 High Sep 17 
• PRICE: 1.3653 @ 20:06 BST Sep 17
• SUP 1: 1.3523 20-day EMA
• SUP 2: 1.3487/3430 50-day EMA / Low Sep 5
• SUP 3: 1.1.3333 Low Sep 3 
• SUP 4: 1.3142 Low Aug 1 and a key support      

A bullish theme in GBPUSD remains intact and price is trading higher this week. The pair has breached resistance at 1.3595, the Aug 14 high and a bull trigger. The break strengthens bullish conditions and opens 1.3789, the Jul 1 high and a key resistance. Initial firm support to watch is 1.3487, the 50-day EMA. A clear breach of the EMA would highlight a potential reversal and signal scope for a deeper retracement.