Please find below the Financial Fixed Odds report from David Evans, market analyst at BetOnMarkets.

Markets tend to be squirrely on options expiry Friday and today is no exception.

The FTSE is down around half a percent while US markets are struggling to gain traction. As options contracts expire or rollover, equity markets can be jostled as traders wind up losing trades or speculate with new positions.

The news flow is generally still dour with US industrial production now 16% below its peak. Capacity utilisation also reached a new record low since records began in 1967. On a slightly more positive note, according to the Empire State manufacturing survey, conditions got only slightly worse in May. ‘Less bad’ is the ‘new good’ it seems.

The financial implications of the GM bankruptcy seem to be unclear at the moment as this political hot potato rumbles on.

In the UK, Barclays is one of the clear winners today on talk that it may sell its entire BGI unit to Blackrock investments, rather than a smaller chunk to QVC. Barclays burst through £3.00 last week as traders speculated on the size any potential bid. In retrospect it was wise to buy the rumour and sell the fact.

Barclay’s rise isn’t enough to push up the entire sector significantly though with the other UK banking stocks mixed on the day.

Weaker crude oil has also helped contribute to the commodity heavy FTSE’s fall today.

So it has been a poor week, but a sell off was arguably over due. If this is the worst we get over the coming weeks, we could see confidence starting to creep back into markets and a more sustained rally set in.

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