Keep ahead of the game in spread betting with this view of the financial markets from City Index Market Analyst Nick Serff.

Greater London, England -- (SBWire) -- 09/17/2010 -- Nick Serff, Market Analyst of spread betting provider City Index (http://www.cityindex.co.uk), commenting on 15th September:

“Traders refrained from adding more risk to their portfolio’s on Wednesday and instead awaited more evidence from economic data before plotting their next move.

Weaker commodity prices is being counterweighed by a strong retail sector that has been boosted by strong guidance from Next, helping the FTSE 100 to remain flat on the day.

It’s been an very positive months trading so far, when typically we would have expected to see a broad sell off in September. We are up over 8.5% on the months trading for far for the FTSE 100, and most of this charge higher has been triggered by mergers and acquisition activity, and better than expected economic data. I get the feeling that traders are still looking towards data and M&A to drive stock prices higher but yesterdays better than expected US retail sales failed to push the markets on significantly which may indicate that we are nearing the end of this mini bull run.

UK retailers surge after Next
We have seen high demand for UK retailers this morning after Next met forecasts for its first half profits and said that they did not see a double dip recession in the UK. Investors are responding well to the fact that Next, a major high street brand, seems very confident that they do not expected a meltdown in consumer spending. The Next news is lifting the retail sector and benefitting other retail stocks such as Marks and Spencer and Kingfisher.

Sterling falls on unexpected jump in UK claimant counts
The pound sterling fell against the US dollar on Wednesday as traders reduced holdings of the pound after claimant counts rose unexpectedly in August. The rise in benefits claims was unexpected but the market reaction has been rather muted, after the number of people in work rose to a quarterly record. The UK jobs report is therefore rather mixed leaving little reaction in equity markets.”

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