The FTSE has continued to follow a volatile path today, and heading into mid-afternoon has recovered from the morning's lows to ease into the black.
The breaking news this afternoon though is that credit agency Standard & Poor has cut Spain's credit rating from AA+ to AA, fuelling further concerns over the eurozone.
However despite the ongoing Greek – and now Spanish – debt fears, the latest set of positive Q1 numbers has helped to keep a lid on more widespread market losses, and indeed the Dow has opened up around 0.25% in early US trading.
The major focus though undoubtedly centres on Greece's spiralling debt crisis, and crucially talks set to be hosted by German chancellor Angela Merkel later on Wednesday, over whether agreement can be reached on a €45 billion bail-out deal.
With Greece's credit rating reduced to 'junk' status, its 10-year bond interest rate has soared to a ten-year peak of 11.3% – an unwanted eurozone record.
The knock-on effect has seen Portugal's main index fall at its fastest rate since the demise of Lehman Brothers, while its own bond interest rate is close to dangerous levels, where borrowing is too expensive, potentially leading to another situation like Greece.
However, while it is widely acknowledged that Portugal is the next most vulnerable eurozone nation to Greece, a senior economist at Deutsche Bank noted that "there is quite a lot of distance between [the two countries]. The level of debt before the recession began was much higher in Greece."
Meanwhile, approaching 4pm, London's blue-chip index is headed by BG Group, up by 42p or 3.9% to 1110p ahead of its first-quarter update scheduled for tomorrow morning. Randgold Resources continued to perform strongly, 3.3% ahead to 5325p, while both Royal Dutch Shell A and B feature in the leading five stocks. At the opposite end, Centrica heads the day's biggest fallers, losing 4% to 298.8p, while retailers Burberry Group and Tesco are also down by more than 3%.
Shortly after 4pm, the FTSE slipped slightly back into the red, down by 0.04% to 5601.37. The broader FTSE 250 mid-cap index has borne the larger brunt of investors' fears, falling 1.5% to 10306.94, while the main German and French indices have fallen in excess of 1% so far.
Looking ahead, eyes will turn to the Fed's interest rate decision at 7.15pm (London time). Expectations are for rates to stay unchanged at their record low. At home tomorrow, Premier Inn and Costa Coffee owner Whitbread unveil annual numbers for the year to February, with pre-tax profit forecasts at £224.6 million against £198.6 million a year earlier. There are also a host of trading updates from the likes of BSkyB, Kazakhmys, Standard Life, Taylor Wimpey and Unilever.
