Greater London, England -- (SBWire) -- 04/15/2011 -- City Index (http://www.cityindex.co.uk/) takes a look at the activity affecting the financial spread betting markets on 11th March 2011.

The Standard and Poor's 500 (S&P 500) is today (March 11th) expected to continue its weekly decline, with the index closing 1.89 per cent lower yesterday on the previous session.

It finished on 2,185.65 points, with each of its sectors experiencing a retreat in value. The biggest drop was seen for energy, which tumbled by 3.64 per cent compared to the day before.

Bloomberg said that the fall of US stock-index futures has given investors the signal that the S&P 500 will continue its trading retreat, with metal prices also dropping.

Indeed, the index reached its lowest point since January, with a combination that included a US trade deficit and slowing export growth in China partly blamed by the news resource.

The 12:47 GMT report noted a 0.2 per cent retreat of Nasdaq-100 Index futures and a 0.3 per cent decline for Dow Jones Industrial Average futures.

Over-arching all of today's trading was the 8.9 magnitude earthquake that hit Japan, with many stock indices falling following the event.

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