Market overview: Stocks ride gains in oil higher

1630:Close The Footsie popped back above the 6,000 point level on Wednesday as markets extended their recent bounce, with some technical analysts now fixated on the 1,950 point mark in the S&P 500 to gauge the staying power of the rally (or not). Of interest, strategists at Bank of America-Merrill Lynch said they now only expected two rate hikes from the US Fed in 2016, versus between three and four beforehand. Miners spearheaded gains on the top flight index, alongside emerging markets-focused Aberdeen Asset Management. Utilities and other defensive issues were to be found at the bottom of the pile. FTSE 100 up 158.82 points or 2.71% to 6,020.99

1549: Iran's Petroleum minister, Bijan Zangeneh, welcomed the agreement reached on the previous day by Russia, Saudi Arabia and two other members of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries in Doha, Qatar to freeze their output of crude oil at January's level, but refused to say whether the Central Asian country would do the same, according to Javier Blas, an energy correspondent at Bloomberg.

1510: Iran's petroleum minister, Bijan Zangeneh, has rejected the agreement reached on the previous day by three members of the Organisation for Petroleum Exporting Countries and Russia to freeze their output of crude oil, according to an unconfirmed report from an Iranian energy journalist on social media.

1415: US industrial projection grew by 0.9% month-on-month in January (consensus: 0.4%), while output in the manufacturing sector rose by 0.5% month-on-month (consensus: 0.30%). However, estimates of manufacturing production for the previous four months were all revised lower.

1330: US housing starts declined by 3.8% month-on-month in January to reach an annualised pace of 1.01m, according to the Department of Commerce. Economists had penciled in a rise of 2.0%.

1330: Three-month copper futures are off by 0.4% to $4,563.75 per metric tonne on the LME.

1301: Front month Brent crude futures are recouping part of Tuesday's losses, up by 2.95% to $33.16 per barrel at last count.

1200: Some observers are waxing optimistic on Mondi. They may be right (or not) but the shares are targeting a price gap at 1,315p and 200-day moving average lies at 1,339p, technical analysts at Digital Look point out.

1159: Another day of sharp gains for Spectris, albeit on lower trading volumes.

0923: Anglo American is up after Credit Suisse bumps up target to 470p from 320p. "Cost cuts provide breathing room," broker says.

0900: Stocks have started the morning on the front-foot, tracking gains overnight on Wall Street and Asia. Glencore is at the top of the leaderboard early on after announcing that it has refinanced a $8.45bn (£5.92bn) credit facility. That follows close on the heels of last night's bumper issuance in the primary market for US corporate debt which saw $23bn in deals from the likes of Apple, IBM and Toyota. To take note of, 1,950 is the S&P technical level some in the markets now appear to be fixated on. Iran and Iraq are set to meet to discuss a Venezuelan proposal to freeze their oil output levels. The downside on the Footsie is dominated at present by issues linked to emerging markets such as South Africa (Old Mutual), precious metals (Randgold) and many of the listed utilities groups. and They are the two largest producers which might still be able to lift their output significantly from current levels. UK employment data is due out at 09:30 and a raft of US economic data indicators are slated to follow later in the day. FTSE 100 up 39.50 points to 5,901.67.