Wall Street is heading lower after some weak data and a downbeat assessment on the US economy from Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke, and is dragging the FTSE 100 down with it.
Poor US housing start figures and a dip in manufacturing activity - along with Bernanke suggesting interest rates would probably need to be cut further - has left the Dow Jones Industrial Average more than 120 points lower. The FTSE 100 is down 39.1 points at 5903.8.
Back at Scottish & Newcastle, anyone who bought in this morning when the shares fell below 700p is sitting pretty. The company said it had started talks with Carlsberg and Heineken after the predators raised their bid to 800p a share.
Elsewhere the prospect of a £9bn windfall tax on UK utility companies, related to carbon trading profits, hit some of the potential victims. British Energy lost 20p to 519.5p while Drax fell 21.5p to 534p.
Looking at the issue, Credit Suisse said: "If such a scheme was implemented, we would see British Energy and Centrica as least exposed with less than 3% of the market capitalisation likely to be at risk. The stock most affected would be Drax where we would see the exposure being around 8-17% of the market capitalisation."
