The FTSE was up about 23 points at 5,715 in its first hour of trading this morning, whilst the FTSE 250 was up 21 points at 9,822. Not a very confident start, after such a bad day yesterday considering the Fed’s news, but at least we’re not going lower.

Over the pond last night the DJI closed up 35.5 points at 12,145.7, reversing after a nasty fall on opening, whilst the S&P500 closed up 6.75 points at 1,315.5 and the Nasdaq up 19.74 points 2,263.61. Some positive news was that Standard & Poor’s reckons the banks have now written down enough to cover all the sub-prime losses they are exposed to.

In the Far East this today the Nikkei 225 closed down 91.84 points at 12,241.6, whiclst in Hong Kong the Hang seng closed down 64.53 points at 22,237.11 after investors heard that the Chinese Central bank may raise interest rates again this weekend.

On to oil, where in Far East tarding today the price of the black stuff actually hit US$111 bbl. Yes, US$111 a barrel. This has been blamed on the weak dollar.

Back here in London there wasn’t much exciting gong on. Insurance giant, the Pru, was up 8p at 662p after posting some decent figures of £2.54 bln operating profit, up 25% on 2006.

The Miners were back in fashion too, after commodity prices rose again. Gold is actually almost thru’ the US$1,000 ounce level, trading at US$997.7 ounce, and actually hit that level in futures trades. Mining stocks were up with BHP up 17p at 1,551, Rio up 65p at 5,462, Lonmins up 34p at 3,414, and Anglo up 20p at 3,150. All this after a sector upgrade by Lehman Brothers to ‘equal-weight’ from ‘underweight’. Vedanta didn’t do as well this morning, though, falling back 40p at 2,188.

International Power was up 6p at 387.7 as Deutche Bank upgraded the energy supplier to ‘buy’ from ‘hold’ after a decetn set of numbers.

Supermarkets received a sector downgrade from Goldman Sachs, with Tesco to ’sell’ from ‘neutral’ and WM Morrison to ‘neutral’ from ‘buy’, resulting in Tescos down 7p at 387, Morrissons down 9p at 280.5p, Sainsburys down 4p at 335.5p and Marks & Sparks down 2p at 372.5p.

TUI Travel was up 2.25p at 258p on merger speculation.

The FTSE closed down 84 points today at 5,692.4, which was up about 65 points on the session’s low. The FTSE 250 closed down 187.9 points at 9,801.5.

By the time London closed, over the pond the DJI was down about 62 points at 12,046, with the Feds (House Financial Services Committe) now saying that they will help slow down the house re-pos, which would mean the Feds guaranteeing remortgaged properties. The word ‘desperation’ comes to mind.

Back here in London, it was a building supplier that had the worst day, as Wolseley closed down 6%, or 37p, at 550p after a double-broker downgrade to ’sell’, with Goldman Sachs expressing concern on earnings for this current year.

Oil continued to be strong, which didn’t do British Airways much good. BAY.L was down to 230.5p today, off 12p on the session, as the cost of this year’s fuel gets worse and worse. No doubt the airline will introduce many other savings across the in-house board, with many cuts in other departments, but the rising cost of fuel is going to be hard to offset, never mind match. Peers didn’t like the oil price of US$108 bbl, either, as easyJet also fell, off 20.5p at 396p.

The banks were turning down again, with HBOS down 16p at 562p, RBS down 16.5p at 342.5p, and Lloyds TSB down 14p to 430. News that the London-based fund Carlyle Capital had failed yesterday didn’t help the sector. Apparently the fund’s creditors will seize all of the fund’s remaining assets after unsuccessful negotiations to prevent its liquidation.

Mining giant Kazakhmys closed down 35p at 1,744, falling back some of its massive 16% leap yesterday, as it confirmed there had been no formal merger proposal from ENRC, which we spoke about yesterday. Peers were also down, with fellow copper miner Anto down 6p at 754p, and Anglo down 43p at 3,130. But Xstrata was up 68p at 3,921 on another reversal of rumour/speculation/etc on Brazilian major Vale coming in for a bid. 42-quid is the figure being banted around, which is down from the 45-quid mentioned on the floors last week, but still well up on the current traded price. This sector is a long-term hold. Buying on serious dips can only be a good thing, as the world’s minerals become more and more required.

Unilever was up 51p at 1,651 as it was considered somewhwere fairly safe to plant some cash from sales elsewhere, it seems. British American Tobacco was up 25p at 1,958 on similar reasons, it also seems.

Tonmorrow is another day.