Morning Call by Greg Secker

Britain’s top share index rose in early trade on Tuesday to touch a near four-month high and to close at 4336, taking its cue from a rally in the U.S. markets with banks and heavyweight commodity-related stocks leading the way.By 0729 GMT, the FTSE 100 was up 93.85 points at 4,337, catching up with gains from its continental European peers the previous session when it was closed for a public holiday.The UK index is down 2.2 percent for the year but has rallied 25 percent from a six-year low hit on March 9. Banks were the best performing sector, lifted by gains among U.S. peers overnight.
The Dow fell 16.09, to 8,410 on Tuesday, while the S&P 500 fell 3.44 to 903.80, leaving the major indexes with fairly modest losses. Stocks held on to most of their gains from Monday, which saw the S&P 500 recoup the last of its losses since the beginning of the year. Many analysts believe that it is good for the market to pause after a big rally, especially considering that Wall Street has had its best two-month performance in nearly 35 years.
In Forex news yesterday, we had positive figures from both the US (ISM Non-Manufacturing PMI) and the UK (Construction PMI). In Austarlia interest rates remained on hold at 3% and Building Approvals m/m were slightly better than expected. By contrast, the Swiss SECO Consumer Climate Index fell sharply to -38. Today we have lots of high impact data releases. The highlighs are the Halofax HPI m/m and the Services PMI in the UK and the ADP Non-Farm Employment figures from the US. Elsewhere, key figures also coming out for the NZD and AUD.