Leading shares have come off their best levels after a dip in US confidence to its worst level since February.
The FTSE 100 - having climbed as high as 5411 - is now up 23.99 points at 5375.11, while Wall Street has edged up around 20 points. James Knightley at ING Bank said:
The Conference Board measure of US consumer confidence has fallen 3.9 points to 50.4 in July. There was an upward revision to last month's figure so when compared with the expected drop of 1.9 points on the month we can say that this report was a fair bit softer than anticipated.
The expectations component saw the bulk of the fall, dropping to 66.6 from 72.7. This leaves it at its lowest level since February. [This] therefore supports our view that GDP growth will be significantly slower in the second half of 2010 versus the first half and that the Federal Reserve will maintain ultra loose monetary policy well into the second half of next year. Indeed, inflation expectations continue to push lower according to the prices repsonses to the survey and with jobs growth remaining subdued there is little threat of second round price effects brought about by higher wages.
