Hello traders!

Investors quickly shrugged off the gains accruing after the Fed's decision to trim
interest rates by a quarter point.

Heading into the US close, the Dow Jones was down 15.96 points at 12,815.98,
while the S&P500 slipped 6.29 points to 1,384.65 and the Nasdaq Composite was
was off 14.5 points at 2,411.6.

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

G.

Morning all. Market reports:

Telegraph
The Times
The Times (Need to know)
FT
The Independent
The Guardian
This is Money

Central bank cuts rates for seventh time since September, but sees less risks of slowdown, suggesting this may be last cut for a while.
Fed cuts rates again and hints at pause

Britain's banks are overstating losses from the turmoil in the credit markets and the sub-prime lending debacle, the Bank of England says. Despite frequent official pleas for "transparency" and for the banks to reveal the full scale of potential losses, the practice of "marking to market" trying to attach a value to unmarketable securities is creating its own problems, says the Bank.
Banks are overstating losses, says King

Britain's big banks stand to lose as much as a fifth of their profits as the commercial property market implodes, the Bank of England has warned.
Bank of England sounds alarm on 5bn commercial property defaults

Financial markets have become so pessimistic that the Bank of England fears banks could cut loans to consumers, causing an adverse impact on the economy and preventing a return of confidence.
Markets are too pessimistic, says Bank of England

The blow to tax revenues from the credit crunch is set to send the Chancellor plunging 16 billion or more deeper into the red over the next two years than he has planned, calculations for The Times indicate today.
Credit crunch to deliver 16bn squeeze on Chancellor's tax plans

This gloomy news for homeowners came as Jim ONeill, chief economist at Goldman Sachs, who correctly forecast the collapse of the US property market, said that Britain was likely to be the worst hit of the worlds economies in the fallout of the global credit crisis.
House prices fall as bank predicts credit crunch will hit UK hardest

Householders face a downturn in the housing market lasting two to three years after one of Britain's biggest mortgage lenders yesterday reported the first annual decline in property prices in more than 10 years.
House prices could keep falling for three years

NIKKEI 225	AUSTRALIA ASX200	SHANGHAI	HANG SENG

US Video: Stock Market Technical Analysis 4/30/08

Good morning traders!

In Asia today, the Nikkei was down 93.14 points at 13,756.85 at the midpoint,
while the Hang Seng is closed for a pubic holiday.

New York's main oil contract, light sweet crude for June delivery surged $1.35 to
$114.81 per barrel from $113.46 at the close of floor trading during US hours Wednesday.

Happy May Day!

G.

OUTLOOK Smith & Nephew Q1 sales seen up 16-25 pct, Q4 comparatives may be toughThe Thursday Press RoundupTFN UK calendar and forecasts for todayTFN economic and business calendarThomson Financial Europe AM at a glance share guide: Shares, oil mixed

First Day of Dealings

BROKERWATCH BP cut to 'neutral' from 'overweight' at HSBC; target 675p vs 630Thomson Financial UK at a glance share guideLondon shares outlook - Weaker with drops in NY, Japan after Fed rate cut

Australian shares close down but off lows on strength in resources

BROKERWATCH Capital & Regional cut to 'neutral' from 'underweight' at JP Morgan

UK smallcap opening - ReEnergy ticks up as ongoing fundraising talks continue

STOCKWATCH Kingfisher falls after Goldman Sachs cuts to 'sell' from 'neutral'Tokyo shares close lower amid uncertainty on Fed's next move - UPDATE

London shares open weaker with drops in NY, Japan after Fed rate cutUK smallcap opening - Prelude Trust advances on portfolio wind-up move

Australian shares close off lows on strength in resources - UPDATE

STOCKWATCH Rexam up after positive trading update; Seymour Pierce keeps 'buy'

UK smallcap opening - ID Data

UK smallcap opening - Chromex mining rises on strategic board changes

STOCKWATCH Land Securities falls after Deutsche Bank cuts to 'hold' from 'buy'UK smallcap opening - Randgold Resources slides as AGM resolutions adjourned

STOCKWATCH British Airways leads on cooperation talks; brokers upbeat

UK small caps open easier; Randgold hit by AGM adjournment

Metals - Gold rises after dollar's rebound stalls in the wake of Fed cut

Metals - Copper firms as stockpiles dwindle amid South American supply fears

BROKERWATCH BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto initiated as 'outperform' and 'buy' by CLSA

WALL STREET OUTLOOK Higher open seen ahead of raft of data, earnings reports

Metals - Copper steady as stockpiles dwindle amid SAmerican supply fears UPDATE

Good mornig all

Glad that those "UPS" at IVE and SEY are doing OK today and both with large volume once again

Metals - Gold steady after dollar's rebound stalls in the wake of Fed cut UPDATELondon shares - mid-morning features

STOCKWATCH Smith & Nephew drops 8 percent on reduced FY guidance, mixed Q1

London shares - midday features

Midday Market Roundup

UK small caps up at midday; EBTM soars as expects maiden FY profit

Precious Metals Summary - London AM Fixings

Metals - Copper, base metals weaken as stronger dollar curbs interest

HMB 15.50p - 16p +0.75p

Good volume today as the news came out positive, the fall was due to a boiler being replaced so the mine was shut ..........

Hambledon Mining says Sekisovskoye mine fully operational, producing gold


LONDON (Thomson Financial) - Hambledon Mining Plc. said its Sekisovskoye
mine in Kazakhstan is fully operational and is now producing gold after resuming
production last week.
The AIM-listed gold company said 26.7 kilograms of dore -- semi-purified
gold -- has been poured at Sekisovskoye. This, together with about 6 kilograms
poured previously, will be shipped to Almaty before it is sent to Europe for
refining and sale.
The mine was shut to replace a boiler

HMB chart

BRM 5.30 - 5.50p +0.35p

It well could be the bottom has been reached now, as is bouncing and going positive for the day on small volume

HML 15.75 - 16.25p +1p

moving higher and MMS short of stock after large buys earlier
paying premium for sales and large size, small size and full price for buying

online prices and size

Bid Price BPC 15.80
Maximum Size* 100,000


Offer Price BPC 16.25
Maximum Size* 7,500

Metals - Gold slumps to three month low close to $850/oz as dollar strengthens

London shares - midafternoon features

Precious Metals Summary - London PM Fixings

TFN economic and business calendar to Thursday May 15

Metals - Copper, base metals slide as stronger dollar knocks commodities lower

Metals - Gold slumps below $850/oz on dollar strength,

Crude Oil Falls More Than $2 as Dollar Climbs to Five-Week High
By Mark Shenk

May 1 (Bloomberg) -- Crude oil fell more than $2 a barrel for a third day as the dollar rose to a five-week high against the euro, curbing the appeal of commodities to investors.

Energy and metals declined after the Federal Reserve signaled yesterday it may refrain from further interest-rate cuts after making a quarter-percentage reduction. Exxon Mobil Corp. will resume talks today to end a week-long strike in Nigeria that has cut crude-oil output by 860,000 barrels a day.

``An end to the rate cuts and the dollar's drop signals an end to the one-way trade in commodities,'' said John Kilduff, vice president of risk management at MF Global Ltd. in New York. ``There are also concerns about the economy and how that relates to fuel demand.''

Crude oil for June delivery fell $2.44, or 2.2 percent, to $111.02 a barrel at 10:41 a.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices have dropped 6.5 percent over the past three days. Futures, which have gained 73 percent from a year ago, touched a record $119.93 a barrel on April 28.

Prices closed below the Bloomberg Trender support line yesterday for the first time since April 7, indicating oil may be poised for a sustained decline. The Trender is a technical study that signals a price's direction based on the speed and variance of past changes.

The dollar rose to $1.5453 against the euro at 10:45 a.m. in New York, from $1.5622 yesterday. It touched $1.5442, the strongest since March 25.

The drop in oil accelerated after an Energy Department report showed that U.S. supplies of natural gas, a competing fuel, rose more than forecast.

The Labor Department reported today that first-time claims for unemployment insurance rose more than forecast last week, to 380,000. U.S. consumer spending rose a greater-than-forecast 0.4 percent in March, following a 0.1 percent increase the prior month, the Commerce Department said in Washington.

Nigerian Strike

Exxon Mobil officials will meet with the Petroleum & Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria, Olusola George- Olumoroti, a union official, said. The Pengassan union leader said that while there was an understanding yesterday that workers would return to work as a goodwill gesture to help negotiations, workers decided to continue their strike.

The walkout, combined with a week of militant attacks against oil pipelines operated by a Royal Dutch Shell Plc unit, has cut Nigerian output by about 50 percent, allowing Angola to overtake it as Africa's biggest oil producer. Nigeria is the fifth-biggest supplier of oil to the U.S.

Exxon Mobil today posted the smallest earnings increase among the world's three largest oil companies, falling short of analyst estimates as production dropped and profit margins from refining narrowed.

Brent crude oil for June settlement declined $2.11, or 1.9 percent, to $109.25 a barrel on London's ICE Futures Europe exchange. The contract touched a record $117.56 on April 25.

IVE 3.875p +0.70p

finished at the best of the day with record trades 84M so far

End-of-day Market Roundup