Euro And Sterling Decline

The pound and the euro both fell against the dollar in early trade Tuesday, with the euro plumbing to a ten week low of 1.2603 against the greenback.

Moody’s Investors Services said that they might downgrade banks with heavy involvement in Eastern Europe as the financial turmoil in the market worsens. They might want to take a look at Ireland as well, with talk in the papers over the weekend of bank defaults there not being out of the question.

The yen is also down the tubes after video footage of Japan’s Finance Minister Shoichi Nakagawa falling asleep in front of the TV cameras at the G7 meeting over the weekend. Nakagawa said he'd taken too much "medicine" but offered his resignation anyway.

The pound is down ahead of a report which is likely to show UK inflation continuing to slow, giving the BoE one more excuse to drop interest rates to a half percent at the next MPC meeting in March.