It was a quiet start on US markets as investors waited for the results of a consumer confidence survey.
After initially dropping slightly the S&P500 returned to yesterday's record-breaking close of 1,594.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 40 points - equivalent to 0.26% - to 14,779, while the NASDAQ Composite dropped by a point to 3,306.
The Consumer Confidence index, released by the Conference Board, is expected to show a slight rise to 60.8, from a previous reading of 59.7.
Already out is residential real-estate price research, which showed house prices increasing in February by the most since May 2006.
The S&P Case-Shiller Home Price Index rose 1.24% month-on-month in February, beating expectations.
"We look for some of the momentum in home prices to abate mid-year and for home prices to finish the year 6-7% ahead of year-ago levels," noted Barclays analyst Michael Gapon.
Invesco, rose strongly after reporting a 15% rise in profits as record client deposits lifted assets.
In the UK, the FTSE-100 is set to post its 11th consecutive monthly gain, beating its previous record of 10-straight monthly advances set in 1986-1987.
By 14.45 the index of the UK's largest shares was off twenty points at 6,437.
Ashraf Laidi, chief global strategist at City Index, said the narrow escape from a triple dip recession coupled with the persistent gains in employment may be sufficient to trigger fresh momentum to the current rally.
"The threat from the periodic May sell-off may well be seen as a buying opportunity as long as the 6,240 support survives a weekly close," he said.
The day started positively with Lloyds Banking Group (LON:LLOY) posting a rise in profits for the first three months of the year.
The bank, which is 39%-owned by the taxpayer, said a fall in bad debts, as well as savings from its heavy cost cutting programme, helped push pre-tax profits up to £2.04bn from £280mln the previous year.
António Horta-Osório, Lloyds chief executive, said it was a quarter of substAntial progress with the loan book also returning to growth earlier than expected.
Also popular was BP (LON:BP.), which saw shares rise despite posting lower quarterly profits following the divestment of its half of the TNK-BP joint venture.
The oil giAnt swapped its stake in TNK-BP for a near 20% stake in Russian titan Rosneft, but even though underlying production rose 2%, overall output was down by 5% in the three months to March.
Nonetheless, profits were ahead of market expectations thanks to a strong performance by downstream – refining and marketing- operations.
The Bank of England added to the optimism by announcing that the number of UK mortgages approved for house purchases came in above expectations.
But keen to spoil the party, as is often the case at the moment, the Eurozone entered the fray with jobless figures that showed the unemployment rate rising from 12 per cent to 12.1 per cent in the region in March.
Matt Basi, Head of UK Sales Trading at CMC Markets UK, said the unemployment data "serve to remind us of the disparity in risk asset prices and macroeconomic conditions".
Chicago PMI data from the US at 14:45 marks the sole highlight of the afternoon macro calendar, although there are results from NYSE Euronext, Pfizer and US Steel amongst others.
"This may be enough to push us beyond recent highs into unchartered territory if corporate numbers continue to impress," Basi said.