The FTSE 100 slipped 0.6% yesterday to 5,323 after economic growth in the US fell to 2.8% in the third quarter, down from 3.5%.
Banks weighed the index down with RBs, HSBC and Standard Chartered all losing value, but Lloyds was among the day's top climbers, with a rise of 2.6% after revealing the price of its rights issue.
Miners fared poorly on lower metals prices, with all the heavyweights seeing falls. But gold miners bucked the trend, with Randgold up 2.9% and Lonmin rising 2.7%.
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Defensive stocks were the main risers, with utilities and drinks companies making modest gains. Biggest climber of the day was catering group Compass, which put on 3.5%.
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Europe
In Europe, the Paris CAC 40 slipped 28 points to end at 3,785; and the German Xetra Dax was down 32 points at 5,796.
US
In the US, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.16% to close at 10,433; the wider S&P 500 slipped 0.05% to 1,105; and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite fell 0.3% to 2,169.
Asia
In Japan, the Nikkei 225 gained 0.4% to close at 9,441; while the broader Topix index rose 0.5% to 833. In China, the Shanghai Composite index rose 2.1% to 3,290; and the CSI 300 climbed 2.3% to 3,692.
Commodities
Brent sport was trading at $76.40 early today, and in New York, crude oil was at $76.38. Spot gold was trading at $1,177 an ounce, silver was at $18.62 and platinum was at $1,463.
Currencies
In the forex markets this morning, sterling was trading against the US dollar at 1.6708 and against the euro at 1.1121. The dollar was trading at 0.6659 against the euro and 87.77 against the Japanese yen.
UK news
And today, the Office of National Statistics revealed the UK economy has shrunk by 0.3% in the third quarter, in line with economists' predictions, but up from initial estimates of 0.4% last month. The economy has now contracted for six successive quarters, but the rate of decline is now slowing.
