After rising 116 points last week, the FTSE 100 looks set to take a pause for breath at the start of another busy week.
Spread betting quotes point to a fall of around 20 points from Friday's close of 6,696.
Asian markets offered no encouragement this morning with the Nikkei 225 in Japan down 58 points at 20,527 in the last half-hour of trading, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng index was down 204 points at 24,432. The Shanghai Composite was 56 points softer at 3,608.
US benchmarks on Friday finished in the red, with the Dow Jones 56 points lower at 17,690, the S&P 500 down five at 2,104 and the Nasdaq Composite a point weaker at 5,128.
In the UK, HSBC has already weighed in with second quarter results, showing a rise in pre-tax profit to US$6.57bn from US$5.56bn in the corresponding period of last year. The market consensus estimate was for profit of US$5.8bn.
The emerging markets-focused bank has sold its Brazilian unit to Banco Bradesco for US$5.2bn.
Other big names due to report today include Intertek (LON:ITRK) and Trinity Mirror (LON:TNI).