As we approach the end of the trading day, the FTSE 100 has managed to retain some of its early gains despite downbeat economic data.

Today the ONS revealed that in October the UK's trade deficit widened unexpectedly to 8.2%, but the markets appeared to be largely unphased by the news. Stocks quickly recomposed themselves after an initial drop, with banks and insurers making solid progress ahead of an expected positive start to Wall Street. However, UK retailers couldn't quite keep up with Next and Marks & Spencer responding poorly to this morning's disappointing sales figures from HMV. In line with expectations, the MPC announced no changes to interest rates or quantitative easing, but it will be interesting to see how the vote will be split when the minutes are revealed in a couple of weeks time.

Wall Street surged upwards at the open but has since corrected itself to a modest gain of 0.12% by 3.30pm London time. The US welcomed better-than-expected employment data, as figures showed that the number of people applying for jobless benefits declined to a seasonally-adjusted 421,000. The banks are performing particularly well on the day so far, with Bank of America (+3.08%) gaining the most ground after reportedly settling a lawsuit against them to the tune of $137m (£87m). It remains to be seen whether Wall Street can maintain the positive momentum ahead of tomorrow's trade-deficit figure.