Hello traders!

In the US tonight, according to preliminary calculations, the Dow Jones industrial average rose 32.53 points to 12,523.31.

The S&P 500 was up 8.2 at 1,428.82, and the Nasdaq Composite rose 7.55 to 2,448.64.

Light, sweet crude for March delivery jumped $2.96 to settle at $56.97 a barrel.

See you in the morning with the latest....

G.

Morning Greystone :-) Market reports:

Telegraph
Telegraph (Bloomberg summary)
The Times
FT
The Guardian
The Independent
This is Money

Drugs giants 'mega merger' rumour could spark bid battle
China fears enthusiasm for playing the market could soon bubble over
Police raid homes of Torex bosses in Serious Fraud Office probe

Even before last weeks suspension of its shares and this weeks Serious Fraud Office investigation, Torex Retail has aroused strong emotions in the City. No more so than last month, when Neil Mitchell, its recently appointed chief executive, appeared to have come off worst in a pavement scuffle with a leading City analyst. Although the precise chain of events leading to the incident remain unclear, The Times has learnt that the slightly built Mr Mitchell was on the receiving end of a headbutt from Stuart Lunn, the software and computer services analyst at Collins Stewart.
Analyse this: chief has run-in with City scribbler

Good morning traders!

In Asia today, the Hang Seng ended the morning down 29.91 points at 20,430.55, while the Nikkei closed the day down 106.77 points at 17,383.42.

New York Mercantile Exchange's main oil futures contract, light sweet crude for delivery in March, was at $56.59 a barrel, 38 cents lower than in late trading in the US overnight.

Happy trading!

G.

IMPERIAL TOBACCO CUT TO 'EQUAL-WEIGHT' VS 'OVERWEIGHT' AT MORGAN STANLEY
EUROPEAN TOBACCO SECTOR CUT TO 'IN-LINE' VS 'ATTRACTIVE' AT MORGAN STANLEY
MISYS UPGRADED TO 'BUY' VS 'HOLD' AT DEUTSCHE BANK
KINGFISHER UPGRADED TO 'OVERWEIGHT' VS 'NEUTRAL' AT JP MORGAN
AMVESCAP UPGRADED TO 'BUY' VS 'HOLD' AT DRESDNER KLEINWORT
YELL GROUP UPGRADED TO 'BUY' VS 'HOLD' AT ABN AMRO

Australian shares close lower on profit-taking ahead of Fed meeting - UPDATEAsian markets summary

PSON downgraded to underweight from overweight - JP Morgan

Tokyo shares close lower on weak Sony earnings, Nikko Cordial flap

AFX UK at a glance share guide

London shares outlook - flat ahead of FOMC meeting end; Tata wins Corus bid

AZN reiterated neutral - JP Morgan
BLT initiated buy - SG Securities
RIO upgraded to hold from sell - SG Securities
XTA initiated sell - SG Securities

Tokyo shares close lower on weak Sony earnings, Nikko Cordial flap - UPDATE

UK smallcap opening - Oak Holdings ticks up on planning consent for YES!UK smallcap opening - Walker Greenbank advances on bullish trading update

UK smallcap opening - Gold Frost lower on FY profits warning

VOD reiterated buy - Goldman Sachs

FTSE opens slightly higherUK smallcap opening - Wolfson runs back on slightly disappointing FY results

London shares open slightly higher; Corus jumps on bid win; Vodafone up on KPIs

UK smallcap opening - Gulfsands adrift as Syria update fails to support

UK smallcap opening - Twenty eases on 2007 revenues warning

Cairn Energy rises; Credit Suisse reiterates 'outperform', trims tgt
Friends Provident lower as F&C woes offset solid update; UBS 'buy'

UK smallcap opening - Berkeley Resources run back on profit-taking after updateUK smallcap opening - NWF lower on distribution division warning

Kyoto

any idea on the early strength in KEL today? cant find anything from my news sources

UK smallcap opening - Vivadas rises as Ignition Capital takes 6.47 pct stakeSTOCKWATCH BG Group leads oil heavyweights higher on crude price bounce

AFX NEWS BRIEFING: TMT highlights to 09:10 GMTAFX NEWS BRIEFING: Aerospace and transportation highlights to 09:10 GMTAFX NEWS BRIEFING: Pharmaceuticals and chemicals highlights to 09:10 GMT

Fundamentalist - sorry no, but I'd really like to know because after taking 13 points from it first thing I shorted it again when it went back up. All the utilities seem strong so I wouldn't be surprised if there were rumours or some sector note around. I'm going to keep looking.

AFX NEWS BRIEFING: Oil and utilities highlights to 09:15 GMTAFX NEWS BRIEFING: Consumer and retailing highlights to 09:15 GMTAFX NEWS BRIEFING: Banking and insurance highlights to 09:15 GMT

Kyoto - This thread is superb, it's a must read thread.

AFX NEWS BRIEFING: Mergers and acquisitions highlights to 09:20 GMT

1.5m KEL shares just gone through at 943.

UK small caps open lower with secure Design hit by FY profit warning

Kelda leads UK utilities higher on rehashed bid talk

edit: mystery solved!

Thanks for the comment Sputnik. Glad it's of use.

many thanks Kyoto

been long for a while and was amazed to see how quickly they took it up to 956 this am, fallen back a bit now

Asian bourse roundup

AFX NEWS BRIEFING: Macroeconomics highlights to 10:10 GMT

Reckitt Benckiser lower as Panmure Gordon cuts to 'hold' on valuation

London shares - mid-morning features

Citywire - Broker Tips

US futures edge lower

Midday Market Roundup

AFX European summary - midday

RPT WALL STREET OUTLOOK Lower on data, Fed jitters; Boeing lifts 2007 outlook

US GDP 3.5% versus survey 3.0%

Carnival, Royal Caribbean cut to 'equal weight' at Lehman Bros

Precious Metals Summary - London am fixings

Not much going on those days on the stock market, but VLR is on the move UP

UPS (Added by Master RSI on Wed 31 Jan 02:42 pm)

VLR - Mid 24.5p
Reason - Bouncing from the last retacement, looking good at L2 1 v 1 and MMs moving prices up, and bidding online at24.36p. Man Financial has increased a stake lately

London shares - midafternoon features

AFX NEWS BRIEFING: Macroeconomics highlights to 15:30 GMT

AFX NEWS BRIEFING: Pharmaceuticals and chemicals highlights to 15:40 GMTAFX NEWS BRIEFING: Aerospace and transportation highlights to 15:40 GMTAFX NEWS BRIEFING: TMT highlights to 15:40 GMT

AFX NEWS BRIEFING: Oil and utilities highlights to 15:45 GMTAFX NEWS BRIEFING: Consumer and retailing highlights to 15:45 GMTAFX NEWS BRIEFING: Banking and insurance highlights to 15:45 GMT

AFX NEWS BRIEFING: Mergers and acquisitions highlights to 15:50 GMT

End-of-day Market Roundup

        JOKE OF THE DAY

What is your business
A shepherd was tending his flock in a remote pasture
when suddenly a dust cloud approached at high speed,
out of which emerged a shiny silver BMW.

The driver, a young man in an Armani suit, Ferragamo shoes,
the latest Polarized sunglasses and a tightly knotted power tie,
poked his head out the window and asked the shepherd,

"Hey! If I can tell you how many sheep you have in your flock,
will you give me one?"

The shepherd looked at the man, then glanced at his peacefully
grazing flock and answered, "Sure."

The driver parked his car, plugged his microscopic cell phone into
a laptop and briskly surfed to a GPS satellite navigation system
on the Internet and initiated a remote body-heat scan of the area.

While the computer was occupied, he sent some e-mail via his
Blackberry and, after a few minutes, nodded solemnly at the responses.

Finally, he printed a 150 page report on the little laser printer
in his glove compartment, turned to the shepherd, waving the sheaves
of paper, and pronounced “You have exactly 1,586 sheep."

"Impressive. One of my sheep is yours." said the shepherd.

He watched the young man select an animal and bundle it into his car.

Then the shepherd said: "If I can tell you exactly what your business is,
will you give me back my sheep?"

Pleased to meet a fellow sportsman, the young man replied “You’re on.”

"You are a consultant." said the shepherd without hesitation.

"That's correct," said the young man, impressed. "How ever did you guess?"

"It wasn’t a guess," replied the shepherd.
"You drive into my field uninvited. You ask me to pay you
for information I already know, answer questions I haven’t asked,
and you know nothing about my business.
Now give me my back my dog."

Late yeterday I selected DMR, for the "UPS" a very iliquid stock and more for a long term, waiting for the reverse takeover to happen, it had a move up just before 12pm.
(Added by Master RSI on Tue 30 Jan 10:05 pm)
DMR - Mid 0.2p
Reason - A cash shell of a different nature as is the owner of quarries in South Africa were lately net assets have been reduced from 18M to 400K to prepare for a posible reverse takeover. Today a 2.9M X-trade could signal end of downtrend


Here is the chart....