ALL the ingredients for another volatile global trading session were in place yesterday afternoon. It was a Friday, there was a series of monthly futures and options expiries across Europe and in the US, and markets were bracing themselves for crucial economic numbers from the US.
In the event, the futures and options expiries in London went off much as expected, but gilts began to weaken in the wake of bunds and a disappointingly strong industrial output number upset the apple cart in the US.
In New York, treasury bonds fell over a point early in the session, driving stock prices lower and producing a sharp sell off in Europe. In London, the June FTSE future fell to a record 50 point discount to the cash market.
When the dust settled in London, the FTSE 100 index was left with a 37.0 fall at 3,644.8, almost wiping out Thursday's 41.5 gain.
The market's second line stocks continued their out performance against the leaders the FTSE Mid 250 was never too pressured and eventually closed a net 5.7 lower at 4,227.2.
Over the week, which started with traders bracing themselves for a big sell off after the startling increase in new US jobs the Footsie showed a 65.5 decline.
The FTSE Mid 250, always resilient, gave up 35.5 over the same period.
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/VR3765MFOBH2NMV2QNICYDF67M.png)