As usual it was Mr Alan Greenspan, chairman of the US Federal Reserve and ranked by the majority of the City's money men as the most important man on the planet, who called the stock market shots yesterday.
And, as usual, it was Mr Alan Greenspan who left most of his admirers scratching their heads as to what is likely to be his next move regarding US interest rates. The London market gave an unconvincing display for much of the session, dipping off during the morning and then rallying in the afternoon, before finishing on a subdued note.
But as dealers put it, there was no real backbone to the market, with Mr Greenspan apparently welcoming the tax cuts being put in place by President Bush but declining to put forward his views on interest rates. "No change there" said one market-maker.
"He always tries to wrongfoot the market."
Mr Greenspan's statement to the Senate Budget Committee in Washington caused no real problems for Wall Street.
New York's response to the Greenspan testimony saw the Dow push up around 80 points, and the Nasdaq slip around 50 points not long after London closed.
At the close of a session which saw turnover surprisingly robust but the market lacking direction, the FTSE 100 settled 8.8 easier at 6,255.6. Earlier the index had swung in a 67-point range, dipping 35 points during the morning and picking up to post a 32-point gain before losing momentum at the end of the London session.
While dealers said there were no real pointers from Mr Greenspan about US rates, the underlying feeling in the market was that the Fed would sanction another cut after its January 30th/31st meeting.
Suggestions that the Fed would chop another 50 basis points from US rates remained the most popular view, although some of the more cautious observers said a Fed reduction of 25 basis points was much more likely. And the prospects of a cut in UK rates after the February 7th/8th meeting of the Bank of England's monetary policy committee were undiminished, especially after the close call at January's Monetary Policy Committee meeting, which saw the committee vote 5-4 to leave rates on hold.
