It's day two of Obama 2.0, and after a shaky first day of this 'new' era for the markets, today has at least started calmly, with the FTSE 100 adding 13 to 5805.
With trade yesterday heavily influenced by the sell-off elsewhere, we at least have some company reports to occupy us this morning. Morrison's (-1%), Land Securities (-1%) and ENRC (-3%) are all lower after their numbers, while Burberry has started to repair some of yesterday's damage and moved higher thanks to Barclays raising their target to £12, which is still below the current price at £12.30.
European eyes will watch interest-rate decisions at lunchtime from the Bank of England and the ECB. We aren't expecting any changes, but will be closely watching the following press conference in Brussels for more of Mario Draghi's wisdom, after he pointed the spotlight on Germany yesterday as the crisis starts to hit data releases from the backbone of the EU.
Yesterday's close in the US was not pretty, with the Dow giving up more than 300 points and Apple dragging the other indices as it fell 4%. Today we are currently calling a flat open at 12,930. Florida have still to call their election result, but the markets have very much moved on and we will look for further signs of the fiscal cliff panic seen yesterday – we are definitely readying ourselves for more volatility in the run up to Christmas.