After yesterday's hefty falls in London and on Wall Street amid continuing worries about fallout from the US subprime mortgage problems, shares were struggling for direction today.
At its best the FTSE 100 was around 35 points better, supported by a positive response to GlaxoSmithKline's results at noon.
And when the US markets opened sharply higher, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average up more than 100 points, it all looked rosy.
But it did not last. Worse than expected US housing figures took the gloss off the Dow, and by the close the FTSE 100 was down 44.4 points at 6454.3.
Simon Denham of spread betting group Capital Spreads said: "It is difficult to get too much of a handle on what is causing the current malaise but underlying it all - even if you ignore the subprime problems - there does seem to have been a pick up in profit warnings in recent weeks. Yesterday saw two (Sports Direct and SCi) and although not big companies, they are popular shares that our punters are keen on."
On the subject of Mike Ashley's Sports Direct, its shares rebounded slightly from earlier falls in the wake of its profit warning to edge up 7p to 154p. This compares, lest we forget, with its 300p flotation price at the end of February.
Analysts were scathing about the company.
Philip Dorgan at Panmure Gordon cut his price target from 150p to 130p and said: "The danger when shares have fallen a long way is to over egg the sell. However in this case, we don't see any serious money taking the plunge until after the next profit warning." He described this potential warning as "inevitable."
Jonathan Pritchard of Oriel Securities was no more enthusiastic. He said: "Avoid. Analysts can have no confidence in their numbers and thus it is very difficult to construct an argument for what is fair value. Underlying this is the fact that the whole [business] model could be under threat. It's definitely one not to own and is probably, even at 150p, still one to short."
Among the major fallers today was insurance group Resolution, down 15p to 616p as it unveiled details of its £8.6bn all share merger with rival Friends Provident, down 2.4p to 194.1p.
Power group British Energy led the way down, falling 26.5p to 482.5p after Goldman Sachs cut its price target from 574p to 570p and reduced its earnings per share forecasts for the next four years.
Goldman also did some damage to pubs group Punch Taverns. The company's shares lost 31p to £12.25 as Goldman removed it from its "conviction buy" list. The bank said: "Rising interest rates, combined with a lack of potential news flow in the near term, suggest that catalysts [for a share price rise] may be further away than previously hoped.
"However we maintain our buy rating given the significant upside we see from the possibility of a transaction to realise property asset value, and from potential further deals by the company given its strong track record to date."
Speciality chemicals group Johnson Matthey fell another 35p to £17.11. US regulators last night decided to delay for at least six months approval for a prostate cancer pill from GPC Biotech, from which Johnson is due to receive royalty and manufacturing income.
Consumer goods group Unilever slipped 5p to £16.07 as Colgate-Palmolive - tipped as a merger partner for the Anglo-Dutch giant - said it there were no such conversations underway.
Barclays lost 23.5p to 715p after shareholders subscribed for only two-thirds of the shares on offer at 740p, as part of its proposal to buy ABN Amro. The shares came from those allocated to China Development Bank and Singapore's Temasek bank.
As for Glaxo, it added 29p to £12.75 as it more than doubled its share buyback programme to £12bn and reported second quarter sales of £5.67bn, in line with analysts' expectations.
Also on the way up was Northern Rock, 15p better at 817p after its half year results and a hike in the dividend. BT, up 5.75p to 328.25p, and Vodafone, 0.3p better at 156.3p, were wanted for their defensive qualities.
Vodafone also benefited from an upbeat note from Dresdner Kleinwort, which was particularly positive on the prospects for its mobile data business. The bank said good figures from Telecom Italia confirmed a trend in mobile data growth reported by Vodafone.
"We find this highly supportive as mobile data is clearly becoming a sector-wide rather than Vodafone specific event," said the bank. "As a pure-play with extensive 3G, Vodafone is best placed to benefit."
Elsewhere BAE Systems rose 4.75p to 435.25p as it unveiled its long awaited shipbuilding joint venture with VT Group, down 2.5p to 623p.
Among the mid-caps engineering group Renishaw jumped 84p to 684p despite a 14% fall in annual profits after it also said the outlook was better.
But Bluetooth specialist CSR fell 98p to 770.5p on disappointment about its third quarter revenue forecast.
Recruitment group Michael Page lost 30.p to 543p after rival Randstad issued a cautious outlook statement.
But a positive update from a smaller player in the sector, Greatfleet, saw its shares add 0.25p to 16.5p. Traders believe the company is also on the acquisition trail.
Finally Neteller, which specialises in processing payments for online companies, dropped 113p to 63p - a 64% decline - as its shares returned from suspension after a trading update. The company agreed last week to pay $136m (£66.27m) to the US government under an agreement which will avoid the company being prosecuted for conspiracy. Neteller was one of the businesses caught up in the US clampdown on internet gaming, and will also pay back $94m to US customers.