Britain's blue chips are tipped to open lower midweek as China's stock market regains ground but global investor fears persist.
The FTSE100 closed Tuesday 182 points higher at 6,081 but today is set to open around 40 points lower, according to financial spreadbetter IG.
China's Shanghai Composite Index saw a surge overnight, and is back above the 3,000 level after the People's BanK of China pulled out all the stops to ease the selling flow.
It has pumped money into the system and now lowered the main interest rate in a bid to make borrowing money easier and therefore encourage economic growth and activity. Some analysts, however, see this as just kicking a wider economic problem can further down the road.
The scale and the unpredictable nature of the sell-off was summed up by IG analyst Chris Weston.
" The moves in global markets have been huge; this will happen when market players can’t get an accurate sense of the near- or long-term outcomes.
"Many market participants cannot even pin-point one specific reason for the elevated volatility. In saying that, the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) is blaming the strong selling being seen on potential tightening from the Federal Reserve, while most Asian emerging market nations are blaming the volatility on the Chinese actions.."
On Wall Street yesterday, there was topsy-turvy trading, with stocks reversing earlier gains as the rally came to a radical end in the afternoon session.
The Dow having gained over 300 points earlier, closed out 205 points down at 15,666, while the Nasdaq lost 20 points at 4,506.
UK investors will be greeted by a clutch of corporate offerings today, including from advertising giant WPP (LON:WPP), which reports half-year results and will almost certainly not be slow to point out that in the first half of last year, its performance was boosted by advertising spending associated with the FIFA World Cup.
Also reporting includes APR Energy (LON:APR), BH Macro (LON:BHMG), Bioquell (LON:BQE), Cambian Group (LON:CMBN), Cape (LON:CIU) and Carillion (LON:CLLN). There is a trading statement from bus and train firm Stagecoach Group (LON:SGC).