George Bush has managed to snuff out today's market revival on his own. News of the US president's plans for a $140bn package of tax cuts and other measures to try and prevent the US sliding into recession has taken the shine off both the FTSE 100 and the Dow.
So the UK's leading index failed in another attempt to break back through the 6000 barrier and stay there. Having touched 6030.9 earlier on, the FTSE 100 index closed at 5901.7. The dip was just 0.7 points, but it was enough to push the index into the red for the fourth day running.
Wall Street was nearly 200 points higher at one point, but had fallen back sharply by the time London closed as details of Bush's proposals emerged.
It was going so well for most of the day. A spate of takeover speculation outweighed worries about the state of UK property funds after Scottish Equitable told investors they would have to wait if they wanted to withdraw their money.
Mining group Xstrata added 266p to £33.63 and rival Rio Tinto rose 221p to £47.00, both up on suggestions they could be bid for, by Brazil's Vale and BHP Billiton respectively.
Marks & Spencer added 15.25p to 414.5p on talk - subsequently denied - that Bhs boss Philip Green was stakebuilding.
But any financial group with UK property funds was unwanted, despite several protesting that they were not having problems. So Standard Life and Prudential lost around 6%, Schroders fell 5.5% and Aviva dropped 4%.
With new financial horrors seemingly emerging every day, there seems little chance of an end to the current volatility any time soon.
