FTSE suffers as commodity stocks are hit

lion-dollar settlement agreement over the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

“Commodity stocks will continue to reflect a slowing Chinese economy,” said John Smith, senior fund manager at Brown Shipley.

Smith expected further selling of the FTSE in coming weeks, while Logic Investments’ director of trading Darren Easton expected the index to rally into the end of 2014.

“We’re looking to buy on the dip. We think this month will see the typical Christmas rally in the market, and we think the FTSE should end in the 6,800-6,900 point range”, he said.

Mark Burgess, chief investment officer at Threadneedle Investments, also remained upbeat, saying UK equities continued to offer an attractive dividend yield.

“We continue to like UK equi- ties, and believe that the FTSE’s 3.3 per cent dividend yield should remain an attractive characteristic in a world where 10-year German government bonds yield just 0.7 per cent,” said Mr Burgess.

dived three per cent amid signs that the retailer’s overhauled online service has been struggling to cope with demand.

It emerged that customers have been prevented from making in-store click-and-collect orders for the next day, while deliveries to home addresses – normally taking three to five days – are taking up to 10 days.

The stock fell 13.4p to 483.5p as the problems have blunted hopes of a revival in M&S’s fortunes, a month after signs of improved trading in womenswear and a surprise rise in half-year profits.

In contrast, lifted 10p to 6665p but

was 58p lower at 3226p after its warning on Friday that

like-for-like sales have been below expectations. THE S&P 500 posted its biggest daily percentage drop since October 22 as oil’s slump to a fiveyear low caused a sell-off in energy shares.

The S&P energy index tumbled 3.9 percent and traded at its lowest since June 2013 as Brent crude fell to a five-year low on predictions oversupply would keep building until next year. Leading the decline, shares of fell 2.3 per cent to $91.70 while shares of dropped 3.7 per cent to $106.80.

Meanwhile, several of the year’s biggest gainers also sold off. Among them, was down 2.3 per cent at $112.40, while

shares fell 6.3 percent at $67.65.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 106.31 points, or 0.59 per cent, to 17,852.48, the S&P 500 lost 15.06 points, or 0.73 per cent, to 2,060.31 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 40.06 points, or 0.84 per cent, to 4,740.69.

Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by 2,180 to 919, for a 2.37-to-1 ratio on the downside; on the Nasdaq, 2,048 issues fell and 699 advanced for a 2.93-to-1 ratio favoring decliners.

shares shed 3.8 per cent to $92.61 after the fastfood restaurant chain reported a steeper-than-expected fall in global same-restaurant sales in November and said fourth-quarter results would be hurt by a supplier scandal in China and a stronger dollar.

About 7 billion shares changed hands on US exchanges, compared with the 6.6 billion average for the month to date, according to data from BATS Global Markets.