Leading shares have moved into negative territory, but have come off their worst levels after a steady start on Wall Street.
A handful of US economic statistics were not too negative, for once. The April consumer price index, for example, was virtually unchanged, helped by lower fuel and food prices. Rob Carnell at ING Bank said:
"The core figure was somewhat higher, rising 0.3%. But most of the damage was done by the tobacco price rise, and this is scarcely a worrying figure (states are raising revenues through raised tobacco duties to make up for other tax revenue falls in the recession). There is no inflationary threat implicit in this core CPI rise."
US industrial production fell back, but slightly less than expected, while consumer confidence edged up to levels last seen in September.
So after falling as low as 4317.23, the FTSE 100 is now down 26.06 at 4336.52. A chunk of the decline is due to the heavyweight oil stocks sliding after a dip in the crude price. BP is down 6.5p at 497.75p while Royal Dutch Shell B shares have fallen 23p to £15.89.
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