Market overview: Blackrock criticises Greek government

LONDON (ShareCast) - 1220: "If Greece does not capitulate, Europe has no choice but to kick Greece out...," Larry Fink, the head of US investment management giant BlackRock (NYSE: BLK - news) , said at a Singapore conference.

1000: The ZEW institute´s economic confidence gauge for Germany slipped in April to 53.3 (consensus: 55.3), after a reading of 54.8 in the month before.

0949: Teva Pharmaceuticals may annnounce a bid for US rival Mylan (Berlin: 6MY.BE - news) as soon as today.

0918: Mining giants Rio Tinto (Xetra: 855018 - news) (-1.6%) and Anglo American (LSE: AAL.L - news) (-1.5%) are under the cosh as Barclays Capital lowered its ratings on the stocks to 'equal weight' and 'underweight' respectively after commodity downgrades across the board. "We have made the following changes to this year's price forecasts (in order of magnitude): iron ore -24%, nat gas -16%, nickel -15%, coking coal -8%, thermal coal -7%. All others are