Dow Jones

The Dow has opened in positive territory after a sense of calm was restored to world markets following yesterday's dramatic falls.

Miners helped the FTSE advance more than 80 points after three hours' trading Wednesday as fears Europe's debt crisis could hamper global growth softened.

The Dow plunged 1% in early trade today following German Chancellor Angela Merkel's warning the euro could collapse.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has put in place new stock trading restrictions to prevent a repeat of the Dow's dramatic plunge earlier this month.

The FTSE suffered a sharp drop in afternoon trading to close more than 3% in the red as concerns over EU debt and another Greece bomb attack rattled markets.

The FTSE was 0.9% or 50.47 points lower in early trading at 5383.26 amid fears Europe's austerity measures will slow the global recovery.

The FTSE edged higher while sterling fell from a 10-month high on the first day of the UK's new coalition Government.

The FTSE is down 2% at 5278.76 points as traders continue taking profits, paring back the benchmark's extraordinary 5.2% jump yesterday.

Profit taking saw the FTSE 100 fall 1.3% to 5316.22 points this morning, negating some of its 5.2% rise on Monday.

US stocks plunged to lows last seen in 1987 tonight, amid speculation a trader entered a "b" for billion instead of an "m" for million when placing an order.