The UK market is moderately lower in afternoon trading Wednesday, ahead of a news conference by Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke later in the global day, as concerns about Greece continue to linger even after Prime Minister George Papandreou won the vote of confidence. Sentiment was impacted by lower U.S. index futures and some broker actions.
The Euro Stoxx 50 index of eurozone bluechip stocks is losing 0.30 percent, while the Stoxx Europe 50 index, which includes some major U.K. companies, is falling 0.57 percent.
Having seen volatile trading during the course of the day, the FTSE 100 index is currently losing 0.38 percent.
Barclays is falling 2.5 percent and Royal Bank of Scotland is sliding 1.4 percent, as HSBC reportedly downgraded the stocks.
Utilities Severn Trent and United Utilities are dropping 2.9 percent and 2.6 percent, respectively.
Cable & Wireless Worldwide confirmed that its board considered and rejected an approach received for its Global business. The stock is down 1.9 percent.
AstraZeneca has agreed to sell its Swedish healthcare and dental business Astra Tech AB to dental products maker Dentsply International Inc. for about $1.8 billion. AstraZeneca shares are flat.
Among miners, Anglo American, BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto are moderately lower, while Antofagasta is modestly up.
Man Group is rising 3.9 percent, reportedly on a positive broker action.
Elsewhere in Europe, the German DAX is adding 0.07 percent and the French CAC 40 is dropping 0.26 percent. Switzerland's SMI is receding 0.71 percent.
In economic news, eurozone industrial new orders recovered in April, data from Eurostat showed. Industrial new orders grew 0.7 percent month-on-month in April, after falling 1.5 percent in March. But the monthly increase was smaller than the 1 percent forecast.
French business sentiment improved in June and continued to stay above its long-term average, survey results from the statistical office Insee said. The business confidence index came in at 109 in June, up from revised 106 in the previous month. Economists were expecting a reading of 106 for June.
Meanwhile, Swiss investor confidence dropped significantly in June, survey results from the Center for European Economic Research and Credit Suisse revealed. The Credit Suisse-ZEW indicator for economic expectations fell 12.8 points from a month earlier to minus 24.3 in June.
Across Asia/Pacific, major markets managed to close in the green. Australia's All Ordinaries added 0.56 percent, China's Shanghai Composite Index gained 0.09 percent, Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 0.04 percent and Japan's Nikkei 225 advanced 1.8 percent.
In the U.S., futures point to a cautious open on Wall Street. In the previous session, the Dow rose 0.9 percent, the Nasdaq jumped 2.2 percent and the S&P 500 advanced 1.3 percent.
In the commodity space, crude for August delivery is sliding $0.62 to $93.55 per barrel, while August gold is slipping $3.7 to $1542.7 a troy ounce.
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May 08, 2026 15:50 ET Manufacturing and services sector survey results and labor market data from main economies were the highlight on the economics news front this week. Factory orders and jobs report dominated the news flow in the U.S. Similarly, industrial production data from German garnered attention in Europe. In Asia, purchasing managers’ survey results from China and the central bank decision from Australia were in focus.