Economics / Markets

Election day in the US has injected a spring in the step of Wall St as the Dow Jones approaches a 3% climb after less than three hours' trading.

Shares in Halifax Bank of Scotland (HBOS) climbed almost 9% as the firm moved ever closer to its proposed acquisition by Lloyds TSB.

BT leads the floundering FTSE's decline, announcing an ‘unsatisfactory' performance in its Global Services unit, as the index falls 80.22 points (1.87%) to 4211.43.

Policymakers' recent actions will bring some relief to the credit markets, but the process will take some time, according to BlackRock's senior investment professionals.

A volatile morning on the FTSE looks to be heading in the right direction as it settles comfortably above 4,300, while a rate cut in the US fails to take the desired effect.

Investor confidence has not been dented by the recession, according to Barclays Stockbrokers.

The FTSE100 continued to climb through the afternoon as investors' spirits were raised by good earnings reports and a positive start to trading on Wall Street.

Trading in London remained weak as noon approached, with the FTSE100 down 154.4 points (3.98%) to 3,728.96 as economic predictions paint an increasingly gloomy picture.

The Dow Jones opened more than 5% down this morning as investors feared a lasting global recession following the release of poor economic data across Europe and Asia.

The UK's economic output contracted by 0.5pc in Q3 according to the ONS, the first quarterly decline recorded since 1992.