FTSE 100 Death Cross is food for the bears

It's been another torrid session for the FTSE 100, down a further 1% at 6,495 and heading back to retest a recent eight-month low.

And there's a dark cloud looming in the form of the dreaded Death Cross, where the 50-day moving average crosses below the 200-day moving average (see chart below).

It's the first time this will have happened to the FTSE 100 since the summer of 2012, and the market did continue to rise then. But, clearly, sentiment is very different now, and stocks have lacked the support more evident back in the spring.

Stockmarket legend and City commentator David Buik gives his take on the state of play below:

Equity markets just feel rubbish quite frankly. There's a toxic pong of fear permeating around Threadneedle Street and Canary Wharf. There must be huge concern that increased growth in the third and fourth quarter in Europe is very, very unlikely, which could inevitably adversely affect growth in the UK. That German Industrial production figure of -4% announced this morning was a real shocker, when only -1.5% was expected. The EU's economy is in the mire - deeply so and don't expect the QE taps to be turned on by the ECB in a hurry. Frau Merkel is a stubborn lady and at present she will have none of it. At 3.30pm the DAX is down a short 1% and the CAC by 1.4%. As they say in France - Merde! It sounds better!

At the time of writing the FTSE 100 is down 50 points at 6512. The cyclicals and industrials feels very light headed - Rolls Royce -2.1%, BAE Systems -2.4%, GKN -2%, Meggitt -2%, Intertek -2% and Weir -2%. There's not a friend in sight - friendless in the ring! The banks are OK with just Barclays mildly under pressure -0.9%. Miners were bolstered by Rio early on - up 6% but on news that Glencore have been shown the door for 6 months Rio is only up 2%. Glencore was down 2.75%. Tesco is sitting up and taking nourishment, after the board appointments - +4.5%.

The Ebola outbreak in Madrid sent airline and holiday stocks sharply lower - easyJet -5%, IAG -6%, Carnival, Tui Travel -3.5% and Thomas Cook -4.5%. The booby prize goes to Spirent after a profits warning - -21%. Volumes were better than usual with 900 million shares changing hands on the LSE with an hour to go!

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