Heading into the close, the FTSE has been trading sideways most of the day.

After opening with a leap to 5790 off the back of Intel's strong earnings yesterday, the blue-chip market meandered around this mark until around 1pm (London time), when US banking giant JP Morgan's better-than-expected results propelled the index above 5800. Since then, however, the FTSE has slowly wound back down towards 5790, but should still end well up on the day. Among the biggest losers were Associated British Foods, losing 1.57% after a downgrade from Deutsche Bank, and Legal & General, which turned ex-dividend and shed 1.55% from its stock in the process.

Across the pond, Wall Street has shown similar behaviour to the FTSE in its first hour, with an initial leap followed by wavering sideways trading. Technology stocks may have been stoked by Intel’s incendiary first-quarter results, but tomorrow's Q1 figures from Google will be a further indication of whether the fire that’s been lit under the technology sector has fuel to burn or is more likely to gutter out in the short-term. The chip-maker's promising prospects may have lifted hopes of a rebound in the technology sector and provided a boost to the overall economic recovery, but it remains to be seen whether Intel can live up to its reputation as a technology bellwether. Poor results from  Google would most likely be quick to dampen the market's enthusiasm.