LONDON (ShareCast) - 1630: Close UK stocks managed a small bounce, as equity traders Stateside shied away from pushing the S&P 500 too far below its 200-day moving average, an important level of technical support. In the trading pits for crude futures, on the other hand, it was no-holds-barred price action, as Brent futures fell sharply again. Investors worldwide keyed off of OPEC members' seeming chicken-race lower. Worth noting, according to analysts at Digital Look, are the myriad geopolitical implications which flow on from price movements in this market. As US shale producers look on with keen interest so too surely does the Kremlin, to mention but two of the key players. It is a high-stakes game in every sense certainly. Central bankers may not be too content with the volatility either. Ironically enough, not too long ago a sharp drop in energy prices was the stuff that policymakers' dreams were made of - but not if it is the result of a marked weakness in demand. FTSE 100 up 26 to 6,393.










1632: J Sainsbury has announced that it is to pare some of its loyalty schemes for shoppers, starting 11 April of next year.

1540: Shares of Apple are bouncing back from earlier weakness, possibly induced by news that the Irish government is moving to close one of the world's best-known corporate-tax loopholes.

1539: Analyst Mike Stewart at Shore Capital today upgraded AO World to 'hold' on the belief that the shares are now trading at fair value.

1430: Protesters in the Yemeni city of Aden have taken to the street on Tuesday, demanding the independence of south Yemen, according to Al Arabiya News.

1334: The Footsie has turned higher, apparently on the back of the latest quarterly results out of Citigroup, Wells Fargo and Johnson&Johnson. As as an aside, the WHO sees 5,000 to 10,000 Ebola cases a week by December 1st, according to reports. Acting as a backdrop, US 10-year Treasury yields are lower by 10 basis points to 2.21%.

1230: In the wake of Tuesday's much weaker than expected reading on consumer prices economists at RBS now see the Monetary Policy Committee's first increase in Bank Rate arriving in August 2015.

1158: Tesco is set to suspend more staff over £250m black hole, according to The Independent.

1120: Commenting on Michael Page, Shore Capital's David O'Brien says: "in EMEA the market sentiment declined during Q3 and coupled with currency, is responsible for management's belief that the group is likely to modestly miss consensus EBITA estimates of £82m". O'Brien also noted how weakness in Brazil had weighed on the firm's performance in the Americas. "We continue to believe that the rating is fully valued with upside to the shares highly dependent on whether the investment in headcount comes through in FY2015F," the analyst added.

1112: Asset manager Ashmore has its work cut out for it. Broker Liberum said in order to hit its target the firm would need to make net inflows in the current financial year of $5bn. "This feels a stretch at this point," analysts said, which created a slight downside risk to forecasts.


1100: The yield on 10-year Greek bonds is up by 37bp to 7.07%.

1026: German economic sentiment fell more than expected in October, adding pressure on the European Central Bank to ramp up its efforts to address the weak recovery. The ZEW Center for European Economic Research index of investor and analyst expectations fell to -3.6 from 6.9 in September. Analysts had predicted a reading of 0.


1000: The Eurozone's industrial output contracted by 1.8% over the month in August, according to the latest figures from Eurostat. The fall in production levels was led by a 4.8% contraction in that of capital goods. German output was, not unexpectedly, the weakest, registering a 4.3% decline.

0930: The UK's CPI fell to a 1.2% year-on-year rate of change in September (consensus: 1.4%), after a reading of 1.5% for August. In comparison with August transport prices were 2.4% lower. If falling food (-1.5% year-on-year) and motor fuel prices (-6% year-on-year) were excluded, the annual rate of inflation would be a third higher, ONS points out. That has sent cable 0.63% lower to 1.5984.

0929: JP Morgan reports $25.2bn in Q3 managed revenues, according to Bloomberg.

0839: UK stocks have begun the day moderately lower, caught in the downdraft from strong selling overnight on Wall Street. Hargreaves Lansdown and Burberry Group are leading losses on the heels of their latest updates to investors. Michael Page and Mulberry are registering even sharper losses in the early going. UK CPI data is set for release at 09:30. Traders will also be closely watching the goings-on at today's ECOFIN meeting of European finance ministers. FTSE 100 down 19 to 6,346.

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