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UK stock market morning note (December 6, 2011)

The FTSE 100 is called to open lower this morning following the weakness overnight in Asia after S&P warned that 15 of the euro zone's 17 countries including France and Germany faced credit downgrades if political leaders did not resolve the region's debt situation. This news overshadowed the Franco-German initiative announced earlier in the day on tighter fiscal controls which will be discussed at the European summit on Friday. Overnight we had domestic economic news showing that UK retail sales fell in November because non-food declined due to the mild weather and weak consumer confidence. The BRC survey showed that same store sales fell 1.6% on the year although total sales were up 0.7% over the same period. We have the Halifax house price index survey due out at 8.00am followed by European and US figures later in the session (see below). The euro was lower against the dollar after the S&P news with commodity prices in the main also weaker.