Pound Up For Once

The pound has popped its little head up above the 1.60 mark against the dollar this morning, as concern about a Labour Party leadership challenge is laughed off by Gordon Brown.

The BoE surprised nobody by leaving UK interest rates and QE on hold this week, but what did surprise was the release of the Federal Open Market Committee meeting minutes from last month.

They revealed that there was some discussion about increasing the Fed's asset purchase program, which goes contrary to earlier Fed statements that they were looking to rein things in a little in 2010.

Confused? So is the market. That has got the dollar under a bit of pressure.

It's not all sweetness and light for the euro either, with all eyes on Greece and its budget deficit at 12.7% of GDP, four times the EU limit.

Despite widespread protestations to the contrary, an enforced Eurozone bailout for Greece is far from out of the question methinks.