A rising dollar has helped push Wall Street lower in early trading, keeping other global markets in negative territory.
The dollar has been strengthening in the wake of last week's QE move by the Federal Reserve, better than expected US job numbers and downward pressure on the euro prompted by further European sovereign debt worries.
In particular investors are increasingly nervous about Ireland, with concerns the country may not succeed with its budget plans. Writing in the Irish Times today, Professor Morgan Kelly of University College Dublin said the country was effectively insolvent, and the European Central Bank could decide to make it an example to frighten other countries into keeping their deficits under control.
Meanwhile the better performance from the US currency has left commodity prices lower and pushed down mining shares. So Wall Street is down around 60 points at the moment, with the FTSE 100 down 22.64 points at 5852.71. French and German markets have also slipped back.
Anglo American is among the main fallers, down 65p at £29.64, while African Barrick Gold has dropped 9p to 540p following a Goldman Sachs downgrade.
Serco is off 13p at 560p as S&P Equity started coverage with a sell rating and 520p price target. And Scottish and Southern Energy lost 20p to £11.20 after Nomura cut its rating from neutral to reduce.
