Yet more bad news from the US housing market has put paid to any recovery among leading shares.
Given that the problems with US home loans are at the root of much of the current financial crisis, the fact that there is no improvement in sight is deeply troubling.
Analyst Dimitry Fleming at ING said: "March new home sales have come in well below expectations, plummeting another 8.5% month on month to 526,000 (the lowest level since October 1991).
"Admittedly, the data are very volatile on a monthly basis, but this is just gruesome and leaves no other conclusion than that the downturn in the US housing market is still in full swing. The three-month trend is a straight line pointing downwards with no single sign of improvement.
"For sales to recover, mortgage rates need to come down considerably, consumer confidence has be restored and prices will have to start falling less rapidly. We do not see this happening anytime soon and therefore expect sales to keep on searching for a trough in the next few months."
Wall Street is about 40 points lower at the moment, with the FTSE 100 down 89.4 points at 5994.2.
