Markets: FTSE 100 continues its slide

• FTSE 100 down 1.1% to 6,505
• Gold down 0.46% to $1,094.00
• £/$ - 1.5559

FTSE 100

Pearson was the biggest faller of the day, down 4.8%. Other poor performers included Merlin Entertainment, which lost 4.3% after issuing profits warning, and Sage Group, which fell 3.8%.

In Europe's markets yesterday, the Paris CAC 40 fell 2.6% to 4,927, and the German Xetra Dax was 2.6% lower at 11,056.

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In the US, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.7% to 17,440, the S&P 500 lost 0.6% to 2,067, and the Nasdaq Composite was 1% lower at 5,039

Overnight in Japan, the Nikkei 225 lost 0.1% to 20,328, and the broader Topix index fell 0.5% to 1,629. And in China, the CSI 300 lost 0.2% to 3,811, and the Shanghai Composite fell 1.7% to 3,663.

Brent spot was trading at $52.85 early today, and in New York, crude oil was at $47.11. Spot gold was trading at $1,097 an ounce, silver was at $14.61 and platinum was at $979.

In the forex markets this morning, sterling was trading against the US dollar at 1.5545 and against the euro at 1.4047. The dollar was trading at 0.9035 against the euro and 123.60 against the Japanese yen.

And in the UK, BP announced a loss of $6.3bn (£4bn) for the second quarter, and $4.2bn for the first half of the year, compared with a profit of $6.7bn for the first half of 2014. The company incurred a charge of $10.8bn related to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.