Sterling held firm against the dollar on Monday consolidating Friday's surge following a weak US jobs report, but it struggled to maintain upward momentum awaiting fresh market-moving leads.
The pound had surged over three cents at the end of last week as a much lower-than-expected 21,000 rise in US payrolls hammered the dollar across-the-board.
A calmer tone prevailed on Monday with dealers keeping a close eye on euro/dollar moves and looking ahead to the latest batch of US data this week, headed by February retail sales data on Thursday.
"Today's moves are not all that significant, the market is a lot thinner than last week and it's not taking much to move prices," said Adam Cole senior currency strategist at Credit Agricole Indosuez.
By 1525 GMT, sterling traded at $1.8490 to the dollar, marginally firmer on the session, but peeling back from an earlier one-week high of $1.8545. It was steady against the euro at 66.97 pence.
Cole also said dealers may be inclined to hunker down ahead of a data barrage in the UK next week.