Pound Back Below USD1.50

The pound is back below 1.50 against the dollar in early morning trade after a disappointing set of house price and retail sales figures. Sterling touched 1.4975 overnight, that's more than two cents down on Monday's high of 1.5195.

A story in the Wall Street Journal that Moody’s may downgrade the bonds of several UK banks added to the nervous mood.

A survey by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) said that only 17% of UK estate agents saw rising prices in February, that's the smallest rise in six months and much less than the 30% the market had been expecting.

UK Retail Sales rose by just 2.2% in the year to February according to a report from the British Retail Consortium (BRC), that is disappointing considering that it is in comparison to a very weak period twelve months ago the BRC said.

In the current political climate it doesn't seem like it will take a lot to get a run going on the pound, although some analysts consider it in oversold territory, the path of least resistance seems lower.

Developments with Greece over the weekend seem to have allayed the markets fears over the euro, at least for the time being. There seems to be an air of cautious optimism that they will attempt to sort their own problems out after the Greek parliament gave the green light to austerity measures.

Greek PM Papandreou is in Washington today for talks with US President Obama.