Economics / Markets

Today's decision by the Bank of England (BoE) heralds a period of low interest rates stretching into the medium to long-term, say experts.

Miners are pulling down London's main index in early trading, offsetting strong demand for supermarket groups.

The Dow Jones opened trading in the red on the back of disappointing employment figures showing the number out of work increased to 84,000 in December.

Interest rates could start to rise in two months' time, says Henderson New Star's Simon Ward.

Hopes the UK exited recession in the fourth quarter of last year have been given a welcome boost by figures showing an upturn in the services sector during December.

Early gains among financials offset disappointing Marks and Spencer results to see the FTSE marginally down 0.22% to 5,510.22 in early trading.

Warren Buffett has weighed into Kraft's hostile takeover bid for Cadbury, warning the US giant to not use too much of its stock to finance the proposed £10.4bn deal.

The FTSE was buoyed by big gains by financial stocks this afternoon after a positive note from Deutsche Bank.

US stocks reached 15-month highs on Monday, with both the Dow Jones and S&P 500 up at least 1.5% on the first trading day of 2010.

US stocks opened higher on the first trading day of the year as investors considered weekend comments from Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke.