Britain's top share index fell 0.3 percent early on Tuesday, pressured by energy stocks after disappointing results from BP, which outweighed solid gains from miners helped by positive broker comment.
By 0912 GMT, the FTSE 100 was off 17.46 points at 5,229.95, after closing 58.89 points, or 1.1 percent higher on Monday.
Energy stocks were in the doldrums after BP's results, and with crude paring gains on dollar strength.
BP was the standout FTSE 100 faller, off 3.9 percent, after reporting a lower than forecast 33 percent rise in fourth-quarter replacement cost profit and saying an operational turnaround could slow this year.
Peer Royal Dutch Shell, set to report on Thursday, fell 0.7 percent.
"The FTSE is probably going to be swinging around very heavily dictated by where the U.S. futures go to at the moment because that seems to be one of the dominant trends," said Stephen Pope, chief global market strategist at Cantor Fitzgerald.
"There is going to be a lot of emphasis upon: 'Are the string of decent U.S. economic numbers going to continue in the run up to the unemployment figures on Friday?'."
It was a mixed picture among the banks after their rally in the past two sessions, with HSBC and Standard Chartered both off 0.7 percent, but Barclays, Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group up 1 percent to 1.5 percent.
Among individual movers, Reckitt Benckiser fell 3.2 percent after Credit Suisse cut its rating for the household products firm to 'neutral' from 'outperform', mainly on valuation grounds.
MINERS LIMIT LOSSES
Miners were in demand, extending the previous session's solid gains, led higher by Rio Tinto, up 2.4 percent boosted by a Citigroup upgrade to 'buy', and with Anglo American putting on 1.3 percent after an upgrade to 'buy' from SG Securities.
Xstrata, BHP Billiton and Eurasian Natural Resources put on 0.8-1.7 percent with the demand picture helped by stronger U.S. manufacturing data on Monday.
Australia's central bank shocked markets by not raising interest rates, citing the impact of higher mortgage rates at home, while noting tighter policy in China and concerns over sovereign debt abroad.
No important domestic economic data was due for release on Tuesday, and the only U.S. pointer of real interest will be December pending home sales, so attention will remain directed on Thursday's Bank of England interest rate decision and the December U.S. jobs report on Friday.
