Markets Overview: (Source: Bloomberg, FT, Reuters, DJ Newswires)

UK 100 Index called to open +25pts at 7460, just shy of yesterday’s 7480 peak following the rebound from 2.5-month intersecting support at 7400. Note the 36h pattern of sell-offs and recoveries that could confirm a bullish inverse Head & Shoulders reversal. Bulls are thus looking for a break above 7480 to open the door for a 90pt advance and fresh record highs. Bears are merely looking for a breach of overnight lows and retrace to yesterday’s low. Watch levels: Bullish 7480, Bearish 7455.

A positive opening call comes after US bourses found their mojo last night, recovering some of their recent losses. Asian investors have also largely progressed overnight, but sentiment still retains a cautious bias in response to recent political turbulence, not just in the US but in Brazil now too. How equities close today will be telling as to investor confidence about holding risk over the weekend.

Japan’s Nikkei is higher thanks to Yen weakness and gains for Sharp. Australia’s ASX is the lone loser despite commodities pointing back north, especially oil and precious metals, boosted by positive production cut rhetoric and a resumption of USD weakness. Both FX and commodities still a major driver.

US equity markets stage a minor recovery on Thursday as political tensions came off the boil, allowing all three major bourses to close higher. Mixed results for Dow Jones components saw Wal-Mart lead the index higher, offsetting losses for Cisco, while Telecoms led 8 other sectors higher on the S&P 500 as Energy lagged behind the wider market. The Tech-focused Nasdaq once again returned to outperformance, benefiting from investor bargain hunting..

Crude Oil prices have risen overnight as Russia’s Rosneft, the country’s largest oil producer, is the latest name in the market to lend its support to extending OPEC-led production cuts. This latest seal of approval has pushed both Brent and US benchmarks to test resistance levels of $53 and $50 dollars respectively, the latest hurdles in the commodity’s recovery from early May’s 5-month lows.

Having been subject to profit taking on Thursday, Gold has recovered from support overnight to trade back above $1250. Long standing intersecting resistance at $1262 will likely remain a hurdle should US dollar weakness help the precious metal to rally, with $1272 the next target, whilst continued profit taking could bring shallow 1-week rising lows support at $1248 into question for a return to January rising lows support at $1220.

In focus today, amid a very light sprinkle of macro-economic prints, will be the busy roster of speakers throughout the day, and global political developments from the US to Brazil to the UK.

This morning we kick off with the EU’s Dombrovskis (9am), Chancellor Merkel and ECB Chief Economist Praet (10am; panel on “How to address the still low level of banking integration?” at the ECB/EC conference on Financial Market Integration).

This afternoon sees the ECB’s Coeure (12pm; conf on world economy by International Center for Monetary & Banking Studies) and Constancio (1pm; “Banking union and capital markets union: interaction & synergies” at ECB/EC conf. on Financial Market Integration) followed by the Fed’s Bullard (2.15pm; “U.S. Economy & Monetary Policy”) and Williams (6.40pm; “view from a policy maker”).

Data includes UK CBI trends (11am; forecast unchanged), Eurozone Consumer confidence (3pm; small improvement forecast) and the weekly Baker Hughes Rig Count (6pm) for the latest update on what is widely accepted rising US production at odds with struggling OPEC-led cuts.

For any help you may require placing trades or in terms of market information, put a call in to our trading floor – it’s all part of the service.

UK Company Headlines: (Source: Reuters/DJ Newswires)

• Johnston Press says UK regional newspaper market challenging, says trends seen in Q1 have continued
• Entertainment One announces new episodes and global partners for Peppa Pig
• Britain’s Grainger first-half profit rises
• Oil prices climb on hopes output cuts will be extended
• Hikma lowers FY revenue forecast on U.S. drug launch delay, sees FY group revenue between $2.0– $2.1bn at constant currency
• Revolution Bars says underlying sales performance of business remained positive in H2
• Moss Bros says chairman of audit committee Bryan Portman to retire
• Just Eat, Hungryhouse deal in – depth investigation to go ahead
• Legal & General end – 2016 solvency ratio 163% on new reporting structure
• Aviva says regulatory Solvency II capital position 172%
• Close Brothers says strong performance in Q3
• Australia’s Rio Tinto hits 11-week high as iron ore, copper prices edge up
• Gold rises, set for biggest weekly gain since mid – April
• Oil prices climb on hopes output cuts will be extended