httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddVUEn29oYU

·         Political support from France and Germany

·         No money forthcoming yet; EMF a possibility

·         Moody’s releases bearish note on UK banking

·         UK data: retail sales better, house prices rising.

All this and more is available on our blog. Click here  http://www.worldfirst.com/blog

A lack of macro and corporate data left the markets in a swinging in the wind yesterday but increasing investor confidence and further developments on the issues facing Greece helped risky assets limp upwards.

Although, as we said yesterday, the French and Germans are unwilling to submit any funds to the Greeks they are willing to spend all the political capital they can. The European Monetary Fund or EMF is still an idea on a piece of paper but while helping Greece in the short term it would continue to hurt the euro in the long term; it is still money being spent for a bail-out, no matter if you wrap it up in a pretty bow.

Investor confidence was seen as equity markets continued their recent upwards bent. The steam does look like it is coming out of the move however with the FTSE only able to eke out a 7 point gain on the day.

Sterling is slightly lower overnight on a comment from Moody’s, the ratings agency. They are concerned over how liquidity measures that have been put into place to prop up the ailing banking sector will be withdrawn. Moody’s itself will start to phase out ‘extraordinary’ support assumptions it incorporated into its senior debt and deposit ratings of a number of financial institutions; downgrades will of course act against sterling’s interests.

We thankfully have some data back in the market  today. Overnight those of you with our World First Economic Calendar will have seen we had both UK BRC Shop Prices and RICS house price balance and the outcome is mixed. The BRC figures have shown that retail sales picked up in February after falling calamitously in January due to the weather. The news for the housing market was less good as prices rose by the smallest amount  since August as supply increased dramatically. These figures however contrast with the recent data from Nationwide and Halifax which have shown house price falls.

Other than those we have UK trade balance at 09.30 which is expected to show a narrowing as exporters benefit from the weak pound. Anything better than -£4bn will see sterling attempt a recovery.