The FTSE stumbled out of the gate this morning and has been unable to recover throughout the day. The main catalyst in the UK market was UK retail sales coming in at below estimates. This is a further blow to the UK economy which is still reeling from implications of the shocking Vodafone numbers on Tuesday. At the centre of the storm, the US economy is also showing sides of further weakness, not recovery as many hoped at the beginning of this week. US initial jobless claims came in worse than expected and home sales were worse even than the dire projections from most economists. It is little wonder they are so bad with the average 30 year fixed mortgage in the US now at its highest level since 2002 despite the dramatic rate cuts from the fed earlier this year.
Oil is hovering around the $125 mark, but that will be little comfort to Ford who registered a $8.7bn loss as consumers shun their gas guzzling, SUV heavy catalogue of vehicles. The buying from last week is looking increasingly like a suckers rally as traders realise that the worst may not be behind us and may in fact may appear very soon in the future.
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