European indices trade flat to negative in choppy session

European stocks opened lower on Friday but recovered to trade into flat territory after better than expected German business climate data helped to ease some of the nervousness traders are starting feel about the global economic recovery.

Trading has been fairly choppy and the FTSE has been limited to a range of just 30 points which shows that there is little direction driving the markets today. Much of the market is awaiting data from the US including Durable Goods Orders and New Home Sales. There is a little bit of optimism regarding New Home Sales considering yesterday Existing Home Sales figures beat market expectations.

German IFO business climate rose unexpectedly more than expected in September, rising to 106.8 and this has risen a bit of confidence that strength in Germany could continue to support the Eurozone as a whole. That said, Business expectations fell more than expected which may well bring into greater focus corporate outlooks when the next round of company earnings comes next month.

We have seen the banks and energy firms post small gains whilst it is weakness in the miners that is keeping the FTSE 100 weighed down at present.

ARM Holdings lifted by Oracle’s CEO
Oracles CEO today gave a strong hint that they may look to bid for ARM Holdings and this has given a strong lift to ARM’s shares today. Oracle’s CEO Mr Ellison stated that they are keen to make more acquisitions to boost the firms technology and microchip operations and so naturally given the high amount of speculation of late linking them with ARM, many traders are reading between the lines and taking this as an admission they could be looking at ARM Holdings. ARM shares have rallied over 6% to the top of the FTSE 100 leader board as a result