LONDON (Thomson Financial) - The pound rallied strongly following a much stronger-than expected UK house price survey, brushing off the impact of weak Christmas retail sales figures.
The UK's largest building society Halifax reported UK house prices rose 1.3 pct in December from the previous month, confounding expectations for a drop of 0.5 pct following three previous monthly declines.
Sterling rallied on the numbers as it firmed expectations that the Bank of England will refrain from cutting interest rates this week, opting instead to wait for further evidence the UK economy is slowing.
Richard McGuire at RBC Capital Markets said the data does not provide 'any additional impetus for a move as early this week,' although he noted that it does not alter the long-term picture for a series of UK rate cuts over the coming year.
Earlier this morning the British Retail Consortium reported UK retailers had their worst Christmas for three years with December like-for-like sales up 0.3 pct year-on-year, well down on the previous month's 1.2 pct.
The data adds to the gloom surrounding the UK economy, but the pound moved little on the news, with analysts at BNP Paribas (other-otc: BNPQY.PK - news - people ) saying sterling's rapid fall in recent weeks means it may not fall much lower in the near-term.
Meanwhile the dollar was weaker ahead of this afternoon's US housing data.
The pending home sales index for November is expected to drop to -0.5 from 0.6 in October showing the slump in the US housing market is not over yet.
'The release of US pending home sales for November is likely to
confirm dollar bears and to fuel Fed rate cut expectations even further,' said Antje Praefcke, currency strategist at Commerzbank.
A weak reading will fuel market expectations that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates by 50 basis points at the end of the month, which shot up last week following a weak Labor market report.
By contrast the euro remains fairly well supported following hawkish comments yesterday by European Central Bank members. Marko Kranjec, the central governor of Slovenia, said that the bank would be serious in raising interest rates and recent rhetoric on inflation was not 'empty talk'.
Few market players actually expect the ECB to raise rates in the coming months, but such talk adds weight to expectations that inflation concerns means rates are likely to stay on hold for the next few months.
However analysts at Barclays (nyse: BCS - news - people ) Capital said the euro zone economy is set to slow over the coming year as the full impact of the credit crunch, and the euro's strength is unlikely to persist over the long-term.
'The ECB are not likely to cut rates in the next couple of months but our view remains that interest rate expectations are too high for the ECB relative to the Fed or BoE, and that this is likely to weigh on the euro in the months to come,' they said.
Euro zone retail figures, out at 1000 GMT, are expected to show sales rising by 0.5 pct from the previous month and by an annual rate of 0.3 pct.
Finally the yen was weaker this morning, weighed on by a stronger opening on major European stock exchanges. This tends to weigh on the yen as it reduces risk aversion, meaning investors move away from safe-haven currencies.
However the expected slowdown in the US economy over the coming year means the yen is expected to firm over 2008 as a whole.
'International macro themes are playing well to yen strength, with
a slowing US economy occurring in the context of ongoing inflationary pressures in the global economy,' said Ashley Davies, currency strategist at UBS (nyse: UBS - news - people ).
'In addition Japan's lethargic economic outlook is at least very stable in contrast to the heightened uncertainty over the outlook for the US and European economies,' he added.
London 0925 GMT Hong Kong 0500 GMT
US dollar
yen 109.58 up from 109.23
sfr 1.1166 down from 1.1179
Euro
usd 1.4707 up from 1.4695
yen 161.16 up from 160.55
sfr 1.6425 down from 1.6432
stg 0.7425 down from 0.7454
Sterling
usd 1.9802 up from 1.9711
yen 216.93 up from 215.31
sfr 2.2112 up from 2.2039
Australian dollar
usd 0.8782 up from 0.8769
stg 0.4435 down from 0.4448
yen 96.19 up from 95.78