Financial Market Comments from Yusuf Heusen, Senior Sales Trader, IG Index.

The FTSE has made a wobbly start to the morning, wavering uncertainly around yesterday’s closing level at 10am.

Record sales reported by Intel the world’s biggest chipmaker, boosted some UK and European stocks this morning as investors took the news as evidence that consumer demand is gathering pace alongside the global recovery.

Intel’s results propelled intellectual property business ARM Holdings to the top of the table, as Goldman Sachs raised its price estimate on the company’s shares by 35%.

Infrastructure software specialist Autonomy Corporation also benefited from the news, rising 2% in early trading.

At the other end of the table, ICAP is down 4% after revealing that trade volumes slowed significantly in June.

The UK has welcomed positive employment data this morning, as figures show that unemployment fell and the number of people claiming jobless benefits sunk to the lowest in a year.

European CPI figures revealed that inflation slowed in June and industrial production rose by just 0.9% in May, lower that some economists had predicted.

This is unlikely to trouble the markets too much, however, as the figures are broadly in line with June estimates it remains to be seen whether US retail figures and minutes from the recent FOMC meeting will add volatility to the US session later.

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Good Luck!

DB

The above comments do not constitute investment advice and Clean Financial accepts no responsibility for any use that may be made of them.

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