The FTSE 100 declined 43 points (0.7 percent) to close at 5,976 yesterday. The blue chips index is expected to shed a further 33 points (0.5 percent) in early trade today following a sell-off in US markets. Fashion house Burberry (LON:BRBY) led the blue chips with a gain of nearly 3 percent. Pharmaceutical company Shire (LON:SHP) added 2.3 percent. Power generation company International Power (LON:IPR), publisher Reed Elsevier (LON:REL) and oil and gas engineering firm Amec (LON:AMEC) advanced 1.8 percent. ITV (LON:ITV) was the heaviest faller among the blue chips, slipping 5.3 percent. Mining major Fresnillo (LON:FRES) was down 4 percent. Sector peers Kazakhmys (LON:KAZ) and Antofagasta (LON:ANTO) dropped 2.8 percent and 2.5 percent respectively. Oil and gas company BG Group (LON:BG) shed 3.2 percent. US stocks were in decline yesterday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) slipped 130 points (1 percent) to 12,630, the S&P 500 index fell 15 points (1.1 percent) to 1,342 and the technology heavy NASDAQ composite shed 27 points (0.95 percent) to end the day at 2,845. Intel Corp (NYSE:INTC) led the DJIA constituents, climbing 1.7 percent. Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) tacked on 1.2 percent. Disney (NYSE:DIS) was at the bottom of the pile with a loss of over 5 percent. DuPont (NYSE:DD) declined 3.2 percent. Alcoa (NYSE:AA), ExxonMobil (NYSE:XOM) and Caterpillar (NYSE:CAT) lost just over 2 percent. Commodities US light, sweet crude for June delivery climbed to US$99.13/barrel. Brent crude stood at US$113.31/barrel. Gold retreated to US$1,499/oz. Silver and platinum dropped to US$34.61/oz and US$1,772/oz respectively. Base metals followed. Copper and nickel declined to US$3.88/lb and US$10.91/lb respectively. Zinc fell to US$0.954/lb. Traders will be looking to today’s update on US jobless claims. Other data will include US retail sales and producer price index.

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