Economics / Markets

European and UK stocks opened down this morning, with the FTSE 100 losing 1.1%, reflecting the weak performance of US markets yesterday.

Sterling has leapt to a month high against the euro and dollar after hints from Mervyn King dismissing an increase in QE in November.

After falling on Tuesday, European markets opened up this morning boosted by banks and oil as investors await more corporate results.

George Osborne met about 70 staff from the FSA yesterday to discuss Conservative plans for a new regulatory structure for the City.

The FTSE 100 opened 0.5% down as banks fell on news Qatar's sovereign wealth fund had sold stock in Barclays.

European shares rose in early trading this morning, with banks adding most points to the FTSE Eurofirst 300 (up 1.0% at the time of writing); HSBC, Banco Santander and BNP Paribas gained between 1.2 and 2.3%.

Liverpool Victoria and Royal Liver, the two biggest friendly societies, are in merger talks that could lead to a £10billion mutual giant with more than 5million customers.

European markets opened in positive territory this morning with the FTSE Eurofirst 300 and the FTSE All-Share both up 0.8%. This follows strong overnight results from IBM and Google.

Investment Bank Goldman Sachs set aside $5.35bn in its third-quarter results to take its compensation pool for the first nine months of the year to $16.7bn.

European markets have broadly continued gaining on Wednesday's highs, following encouraging US earnings and the resulting strength in US markets.