After the FTSE 100 came within touching distance of a multi-year high on Friday following a strong US jobs report, investors have used the last two sessions to scale back risk appetite.

London’s benchmark index was down 0.2% at 6,811 in early trading.

“The rally seems to have paused and traders are reluctant to plough through the overhead resistance levels without a compelling fundamental story,” said Jonathan Sudaria, a dealer at Capital Spreads.

Traders were also showing caution ahead of the minutes of the latest Federal Reserve meeting, due out tomorrow, following recent moves by economists to bring forward their projections for the first increase in interest rates.

As for today’s session, the focus is likely to be on industrial production figures and the NIESR economic growth forecast in the UK.

Meanwhile, results from aluminium giant Alcoa due out later this evening will unofficially kick off second-quarter earnings-reporting season in the States, giving investors another reason to tread carefully today.

Consensus forecasts peg profits at companies on the S&P 500 rising by around 5% in the three months to June. However, with US indices already trading close to record highs, analysts are concerned that any ‘miss’ could result in a big correction.

M&S rises on clothing improvement

Marks & Spencer gained despite reporting another decline in like-for-like growth in the first quarter. While the high street department store chain blamed the drop on the impact of its new website and fewer promotions, it expressed confidence in improving trends in clothing, particularly womenswear.

Mining stocks were mostly higher this morning including Rio Tinto, BHP Billiton, Randgold and Kazakhmys after Morgan Stanley lifted its target prices for the four stocks. Other miners such as Fresnillo, Glencore and Antofagasta were also making gains.

Airline stocks IAG and easyJet were falling sharply this morning as European peer Air France-KLM cut its profit guidance for the year.

Catering giant Compass was in the red early on after Societe Generale analysts downgraded their rating on the stock to ‘hold’. Meanwhile, asset manager Aberdeen jumped after HSBC upped the stock to ‘overweight’.

Housebuilder Bovis Homes underwhelmed despite saying that first-half profits would be “materially” higher year-on-year after it increased the number of homes it built by 54%, which was slower than the first four months of the year.

Shares in AIM-listed mobile payments group Monitise sank sharply after the company issued a profit warning, admitting that annual revenue growth of 31-33% has not been as strong as expected. As such, it now forecasts an operating loss of £32-36m for the year, compared with the current consensus estimate of £28m.

FTSE 100 – Risers
Fresnillo (FRES) 944.00p +1.83%
Rio Tinto (RIO) 3,313.50p +1.56%
Glencore (GLEN) 346.15p +1.07%
Aggreko (AGK) 1,700.00p +0.89%
Marks & Spencer Group (MKS) 436.70p +0.81%
Aberdeen Asset Management (ADN) 460.60p +0.77%
Antofagasta (ANTO) 821.50p +0.74%
Coca-Cola HBC AG (CDI) (CCH) 1,327.00p +0.61%
Sports Direct International (SPD) 748.00p +0.47%
Standard Chartered (STAN) 1,213.00p +0.46%

FTSE 100 – Fallers
International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (CDI) (IAG) 346.80p -3.99%
easyJet (EZJ) 1,288.00p -2.79%
Barratt Developments (BDEV) 363.50p -2.28%
Persimmon (PSN) 1,261.00p -1.56%
Hargreaves Lansdown (HL.) 1,223.00p -1.45%
Petrofac Ltd. (PFC) 1,215.00p -1.30%
Travis Perkins (TPK) 1,633.00p -1.27%
ARM Holdings (ARM) 891.50p -1.22%
BG Group (BG.) 1,242.00p -1.19%
Vodafone Group (VOD) 194.60p -1.14%

Source: ShareCast