After an inauspicious start to the week the markets are looking somewhat healthier today

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• After an inauspicious start to the week the markets are looking somewhat healthier today.
• The FTSE is up 0.5% that’s 28 points at 5497 and the Cac and DAX are up 21 and 40 points respectively.
• Wall Street closed up 162 and ½ points or 1.3% with every stock in the index finishing positive save for United Technologies which was only down 0.3%.
• Back on home turf Sainbury’s is bucking the positive trend this morning being down 2.5% despite announcing that it had outperformed the market with a 1.4% increase in like-for-like sales and a welcome boost by Jubilee celebrations.
• Even though it slightly outperformed analysts expectations of 1 and ¼% growth the drop off could be explained by the more cynical investors comparing these results with the 2.6% growth experienced in the last quarter of last year.
• Oil exploration company Cairn energy also announced it would be buying Nautical Petroleum for £414m boosting its share price by 1.4% and Nautical’s by a hefty 55.4%.
• Important figures to keep an eye out for today are American retail sales and PPI at 1:30pm and reporting tomorrow we have WH Smith and Carphone Warehouse.
• Despite the apparently bullish state of the market Spanish and Italian bond yields are continuing to rise and the notion of a Grexit is really starting to seem like the best option, especially to an uncharacteristically curt George Osborne at a meeting of business leaders yesterday. Let’s just hope there’re no nasty surprises when the votes come in on Sunday.

See the City Index Economic Calendar and Companies Reporting Dates page for latest economic news and company events that are likely to impact the markets today.