Market overview: BofA pushes back ECB QE2 call

1630:Close Stocks edged lower, tracking the selling pressure on Wall Street amid a small retreat in Gilts (although they outperformed) and a mixed performance by commodities. Copper futures were up but crude futures slid ahead of Wednesday’s technical meeting from OPEC and market coverage of the intense price competition among member countries for cargoes to Asia. Against that backdrop, Credit Suisse downgraded stock in AstraZeneca to ‘underperform’ from ‘neutral’. The latest batch of economic data and corporate results out Stateside were mixed. A positive reading on credit conditions in the Eurozone tempered expectations ahead of the ECB’s meeting on Thursday. BofA pushed back its call for more QE to December from October.

1330: US housing starts jumped by 6.5% month-on-month in September to reach an annualised rate of 1.21m (consensus: 1.14m). Permits on the other hand fell 5% to reach an annualised clip of 1.1m (consensus: 1,17m).

1316: Wednesday's Ferrari IPO on the NYSE has produced mixed feelings from analysts. But Saxo Bank's head of equity strategy, Peter Garnry, has an interesting take on what the issue signals for the worldwide economy. He posits whether this luxury IPO is "the ultimate sell signal" on high net worth individuals (HNWI). "Ferrari builds its growth case on the continuation of HNWI growth and their desire to purchase supercars. Given the general inequality gap rising in many countries across both developed and emerging countries, it is very likely that changes to the tax code will be implemented to deal with this rising gap. The facts are clear, the wealth concentration in fewer hands has not been this high since 1928, at least not in the modern industrial age. When the pendulum has swung too much to one side, it usually goes back again. It could very well happen with the wealth gap. If that happens, it will surely reduce the growth rate of luxury goods, including Ferraris."

1306: GlaxoSmithKline reported positive findings in two tests for patients treated with its Ellipta drug for chronic obstructionary pulmonary disease.

1222: Two of the UK’s three listed grocers saw their market share drop in the latest 12 week period, according to reports citing the latest data available from Nielsen, as the grocery sector suffered a rare fall in both sales value and volume in the last four weeks.In the four weeks to 10 October, prices dropped 1.0% versus the same period a year ago and volumes by 0.1%.

1130 Bank of England’s well-known hawk Ian McCafferty again called for an interest rate hike. In a speech at Bloomberg’s headquarters in London, McCafferty said: “If we on the MPC are to achieve our ambition of raising rates only gradually, so as to minimise the disruption to households and businesses of a normalisation of policy after a long period in which interest rates have been at historic lows, we need to avoid getting behind the curve."

1051: The Treasury has received over £21.8bn in orders for the approximately £4.5bn of 50-year Gilts on offer today via a syndicated sale.

1000: Asian equity markets struggled for direction on Tuesday, as lower oil prices offset a rally in Chinese stocks. The Shanghai Composite Index closed up 1.14%, as investors remained buoyed by the prospect of more stimulus from China’s central bank, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng declined 0.37%. “Traders continue to struggle with deciphering the weak Chinese GDP figure yesterday and how much of a warning flag it should be for the rest of the global economy,” said London Capital Group’s analyst Jonathan Sudaria.

0913: Shares of InterContinental Hotels Group are leading early gains on the back of the company's latest quarterly revenue figures, followed by the likes of Whitbread after management dished out an extra-large interim dividend. Aveva and Domino’s Pizza are pacing gains on the second tier index, with the former benefitting from an upgrade out of Berenberg. Commodity issues are generally weaker. Speeches from several MPC and Fed speakers due throughout the day will be closely watched, together with the latest quarterly results from no less than 22 S&P 500 constituents. FTSE 100 up 12.05 points to 6,364.43.