Mixed couple of weeks for Sterling, but it gains against the US Dollar, Canadian Dollar and the Yen

It has been a mixed couple of weeks for foreign exchange brokers as Sterling gave away five cents to the Euro and five cents to the Australian Dollar but it gained two cents against the US Dollar, one cent against the Canadian Dollar and three Japanese Yen while holding steady against the New Zealand Dollar, so not quite curtains for Sterling yet.

Unfortunately, Sterling's performance yesterday wasn't so balanced as it lost ground to pretty much every currency. The problems came from the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) minutes which was the only piece of Sterling data yesterday that could impact Sterling. And it did.

The MPC minutes were as expected in terms of leaving interest rates on hold at 0.5% but the tone was more inclined to relaxation of interest rates rather than increasing interest rates. In addition, MPC members noted that it may become necessary to take steps to stimulate the economy again. Further quantitative easing in other words which was the catalysts for Sterling's fall yesterday.

The US Dollar was also under pressure for similar reasons as the US Federal Reserve's statement read that it was prepared to provide "additional accomodation if needed to support the econony".

Today, services and manufacturing PMI from the Eurozone are released as is the British Bankers' Association mortgage approvals, the latest piece of data on the state of the UK housing market.

In the US weekly jobless claims are out as are existing home sales which are bound to improve in August after July's 27.2% fall.