Morning Call by Greg Secker

Yesterday the FTSE closed up 76 points at 4,208 having started with continued weakness from the day before the index then lifted in the last three hours of the session in a 140 point rally. Today only the bank of England minutes, out at 9.30 am, offer any UK news led movement, as yesterday’s post FTSE close activity on the industrial average coupled with American news breaks, will be the main source of directional movement. The Dow Jones showed early strength but peaked just below the 8,500 level and then fell to very close to the 8,100 and then rallied 300 points back to close up 151 points at 8,424. Continued concerns over the potential failure of General Motors is driving (pardon the pun) further economic fears, and yesterday, with the Producer Price Index reports presenting a 2.8 % drop, commodities are clearly feeling a lessening in demand due to the global downturn, not least of which Oil, indicated to continue its fall in price, is currently trading at $54.74 whilst Gold is at $737.40. Today with a raft of major market news covering the Consumer Price Index figures and Housing Starts at 1.30 pm GMT and finishing up with the minutes of the Federal monetary committee meeting at 7pm GMT look for further weakness and ranging volatility should the news negative. That’s it for now, good trading and I will speak with you tomorrow.