"US stocks are indicating a flat open as investors paused with little economic data giving traders few reasons to push shares in one direction. The market has maintained a sideways view over the last few days as the corporate earnings season comes to an end.

"European shares started the day lower led by mining shares and growing concerns that China’s economy will slow. They have since recovered on thin volumes as we approach the US open."

14:05: Wednesday to be of importance for sterling, Inflation Report due

UniCredit Bank warns that sterling is looking fragile ahead of tomorrow's important inflation report:
"Cable remains close to 1.53, but appears fragile ahead of the BoE’s Inflation Report tomorrow, with a drop towards 1.52 still possible. This move could also help EUR-GBP rally above 0.85."

11:00: No explicit reason for yesterday's strong sell off

Mark Deans at Moneycorp:

"The pound's downward drift was exacerbated by a four o'clock sell-off which appeared out of nowhere. There were no UK data to do any damage; indeed the only figures of any consequence during the London session were for US retail sales. Sales in April were fractionally higher on the month, having been expected to fall. The US dollar spiked briefly higher in reaction to the news before falling back to its earlier levels."

8:35: All about the US dollar at present

At the start of play on Tuesday we see the broader theme of US dollar movements remains.

Piet Lammens at KBC Markets says:

"On Monday, markets took a breather after last week’s repositioning. Core bonds regained some ground after last week’s sell-off, the rally in equities halted and so did the sharp rebound of the dollar. The USD gains at the end of last week were not really supported by high profile news."