World markets report

The FTSE 100 slipped 0.6% to 5,285 yesterday as the strengthening dollar depressed commodity stocks, and banks gave up some of Tuesday's gains.

Miners weighed on the index, with Fresnillo taking the bottom spot, losing 2.7%; Antofagasta shed 1.6%, Rio Tinto lost 1.4% and Kazakhmys fell 1%.

Energy stocks were also weaker, with Tullow Oil down 2.3% and Cairn Energy losing 1.2%; Royal Dutch Shell was 0.9% lower and BP slipped 0.3%. BG Group, however, managed a rise of 0.6%.

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Among banks, HSBC and Barclays put up the worst show, falling 2.5% and 2.4% respectively. But Lloyds added 0.3%, and RBS gained 2%.

Read the latest stock market news and charts here.

Europe

In Europe, the Paris CAC 40 rose four points to 3,834; and the German Xetra Dax was nine points higher at 5,811.

US

In the US, the Dow Jones fell 0.5% to 10,452; the S&P 500 lost 0.6% to 1,107; and the Nasdaq Composite was 0.5% lower at 2,201.

Asia

In Japan, the Nikkei 225 added 0.9% to 10,177; and the broader Topix index gained 1.5% to close at 898. In China, the Shanghai Composite index fell 0.6% to 3,255; and the CSI 300 was 0.6% lower at 3,560.

Commodities

Brent spot was trading at $72.37 early today, and in New York, crude oil was at $71.15. Spot gold was trading at $1,127 an ounce, silver was at $17.37 and platinum was at $1,439

Currencies

In the forex markets this morning, sterling was trading against the US dollar at 1.6252 and against the euro at 1.1169. The dollar was trading at 0.6874 against the euro and 89.82 against the Japanese yen.

UK news

Britain's unemployment rate has fallen for the first time since February 2008, according to the Office for National Statistics. The number of people out of work and claiming benefit fell by 6,300 in November to 1.63m. The wider measure of employment as used byt he International Labour Organisation rose by the smallest amount since early last year, up 21,000 to 2.49m. The number of people counted as economically inactive fell by 1,000 in the last month, but rose by 96,000 compared to a year ago, to 7.9m.