There's some concern that although inflationary pressures do appear to have receded in recent days, higher fuel prices could reignite worries here and this in turn has the potential to weigh on stocks across the board.

With the rate verdict due later, there's a cautious mood creeping into equity markets as although a 25-basis-point hike is widely expected, there's little consensus as to just how long the aggressive stance over interest rates will now continue for.

The petrochemicals sector looks set to remain squarely in focus as trading in 2006 gets under way.

The airline themselves aren't actually even coming out with any ideas of how much the strike is going to hurt them on top of the increase in oil prices so we're not actually making any call on price at the moment but it will be down and I would say quite heftily.

They have had the advantage of being a low-cost carrier, but there is concern that the gap is waning.

Today's market may well face a struggle for direction. Uncertainty over oil prices and the future direction for U.S. interest rates has made it a somewhat choppy week.