GBP/USD looking down the barrel at 1.40 as soft data weighs

• Sterling facing down a loser week as data continues to slide.
• BoE starting to turn dovish, rate hikes may be pushed out.

The GBP/USD is trading on the bottom heading into the European markets, sitting near 1.4075.

It's been a bad week for the Sterling: Average Earnings disappointed on Tuesday, CPI disappointed on Wednesday, and then both Retail Sales and the Bank of England's (BoE) Mark Carney disappointed on Thursday. The week is almost over and the pair can breathe a sigh of relief, with little else on the economic calendar outside of a speech from BoE MPC Member Michael Saunders at 09:30 GMT, who will be speaking at the University of Strathclyde.

Retail Sales figures capped off an unfortunate week yesterday, missing the mark and sending the Sterling lower in the European session. The GBP managed to recover to 1.4245, but dovish comments from the BoE's Mark Carney sent the Pound skidding into 1.4070, assisted by a round of buying for the US Dollar in the broader market. The BoE has had to take a dovish U-turn this week as softening economic data begins to threaten the central bank's chances of beginning to hike rates in May.

Next week has a fairly quiet schedule for the GB on the macro calendar, although preliminary GDP figures next Friday could knock any potential recovery back down if the recent data coming out of the UK are going to be any indication of the likely result.

GBP/USD analysis: Pound keeps losing ground, hurt by data, Carney

GBP/USD Levels to watch

As noted by FXStreet's Chief Analyst, Valeria Bednarik, "the pair pierced the 61.8% retracement of its latest bullish run, now offering an immediate resistance at 1.4120, while struggling around a bullish 200 EMA, in the 4 hours chart, usually a strong dynamic support/resistance, technical indicators in the mentioned chart head sharply lower, entering oversold territory, with further declines seen extending down to the  psychological 1.4000 threshold."

Support levels: 1.4070 1.4035 1.4000

Resistance levels: 1.4120 1.4165 1.4205