Market overview: Goldman reports better than expected earnings

LONDON (ShareCast) - 1239: Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS-PB - news) reports first quarter adjusted earnings per share of $5.94 (consensus: $4.26), with revenues rising to $10.62bn, coming in well ahead of the $9.31bn anticipated by analysts. 1236: Cable is approaching short-term technical resistance in the vicinity of 1.4943, which is the 38.2% Fibonacci retracement from the 26 February high to April 15 low, one analysts says.

1201: BP chairman says company wil keep exploring M&A opportunities.

1029: "End ECB dictatorship t-shirts on sale on eBay: capitalism always wins," one of the best tweets from yesterday according to one large City-based institution.

1019: "Markets do not necessarily behave in a rational fashion, however, and there will be short-term swings in sentiment, but I believe that oil prices could reach levels that nobody dares to suggest in coming months. The oil companies will continue to talk conservatively about their plans and emphasise the need to be cautious (in an attempt to continue to drive costs down), but we may be looking at a perfect storm for E&P emerging in coming months - a strong rise in oil prices just as costs are falling, ie margin expansion. E&P has suffered falling margins for almost 4 years, that may be about to change," write analysts Mark Henderson and Jamal Orazbayeva at Westhouse Securities. 0945 :Contrasting fortunes for drinks companies this morning, with SABMiller (Xetra: BRW1.DE - news) up roughly 2% and Diageo (LSE: DGE.L - news) down around 2%. Drinks analysts see both company's mainstream offering as being threatened by the trend towards craft products. Johnny Forsyth from Mintel praised SAB's move away from alcohol into soft drinks as developed countries see a decline in alcohol consumption. "SAB Miller have really changed, they're a lot more into soft drinks than they were before," he said in an interview on CNBC. "Its such a threat to them with the craft beer trend coming through, that consumers are looking at what they see as generic style beers and they want stuff that's craft with a story, something that's smaller. Thats a real real problem for SAB Miller who produce mainstream beers and that's also a problem for Diageo who have got a lot of mainstream brands. They're almost stuck in this middle area where they're not quite cheap enough or value enough for every day occasion but not quite premium enough for special occasions." On the move towards non-alcoholic beverages by SAB, he said: "Especially in the developed world we're seeing a decline in alcohol consumption. It actually makes a lot of sense as a business to realign and not be so so dependent on alcoholic drinks." 0916: London's Footsie is being dragged lower by blue chips BAE Systems (LSE: BA.L - news) , Hikma Pharmaceuticals (LSE: HIK.L - news) , Capita (LSE: CPI.L - news) , Intu Properties (LSE: INTU.L - news) , Smith & Nephew (LSE: SN.L - news) and Reckitt Benckiser (Xetra: A0M1W6 - news) who are all trading with heavy losses after going ex-dividend. The FTSE 100 is down 11.01 at 7,085.77.

0845: Stocks have begun the morning drifting slightly lower, led by falls in Meggitt (Other OTC: MEGGF - news) and BAE Systems. Unilever (NYSE: UL - news) is top of the leaderboard following the release of its latest quarterly figures. Greek 10-year bond yields are higher sharply higher in the early going, offsetting a positive session overnight on Wall Street. According to one report, an advisor to the Greek government has suggested the country may hold a referendum. Ironically, that may serve to give Athens more legitimacy when pursuing the measures necessary so that the country can stay in the single currency area. There is a heavy calendar of European government debt auctions and Fed speakers today. FTSE 100 down 9 points to 7,081.09.