Leading shares have perked up a little as US futures rally, albeit the FTSE 100 index is still down 81.9 points at 3997.7.
Following yesterday's 733 point drop on Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average is predicted to open around 100 points higher. There are a number of major US companies due to report later today, including Citigroup, Merrill Lynch, IBM and Google.
Meanwhile traders were hearing suggestions of another concerted central bank interest rate cut, despite the fact the last one was only a few days ago. Hard to know whether this would reassure, or cause more panic.
Meanwhile indications for Libor - the rate at which banks lend to each other - show another slight dip. But the level is still much higher than base rates, so the unfreezing of the money markets is proving a painfully slow process.
