Updates from Barclays, Facebook and Google

Miners, again, were in the doldrums on Tuesday with multinational Anglo American down more than 6% to 307.35p. However the FTSE 100 index was up almost 60 points overall to 6,314.5, helped by a 4.7% lift from Hikma Pharma, up 4.7% to 2358p and Taylor Wimpey, up 3.5% to 204.20p; housebuilder rivals Persimmon and Barratt were up strongly too taking 3.4% and 2.9% climbs respectively.

There was more positive energy Stateside with the Dow up 1.1% to 17,720.9 with Boeing climbing almost 2% helped by better swings from consumer confidence. For the year overall the Dow is down 102 points, or 0.6%. In contrast, the Nikkei 225 is up 9% on the year.

We start the morning with a $13.75m fine for Barclays Capital from a ruling by the US Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (Finra) on mutual fund fees. Around $10m of the Finra fine will be paid in compensation to customers.

Finra claim Barclays allowed its clients to chop and change mutual funds while piling on transaction expenses causing losses of more than $8.5m in total - without sufficient advance warning to clients. Barclays has neither admitted nor denied the charges.

"Barclays," Finra says, "failed to act on thousands of automated alerts for potentially unsuitable transactions, excluded transactions from review for suitability and failed to ensure that disclosure letters were sent to customers regarding the transaction costs."

We move onto more US legal worry, this time for Facebook. It's alleged Facebook disguised revenue worries before its listing in 2012; a federal judged has now formalised legal proceedings for two class action lawsuits.

Facebook investors had a rocky ride with shares trading at well below $18 within a few months of its $38 IPO (though Facebook shares recovered strongly and are now worth more than $107).

Facebook is appealing, claiming the new legal action has no merit and told the BBC that the move "conflicts with well-settled Supreme Court and Second Circuit law".

Lastly, a boost for British e-commerce. Google boss Eric Schmidt says that Britain is the world's e-commerce leader - far ahead of the US.

"You have the right regulatory environment. You've got the right role within [the European] continent. [Just] look at the e-commerce plays and service plays that are now happening in London."

However Schmidt, speaking to Radio 4's Today programme, warned that UK entrepreneurs however tended to sell their business far too early.