The FTSE 100 closed just below its day's highs as a cautious recovery by Wall Street lifted sentiment late in the session, while the Bank of England's decision to leave interest rates unchanged also provided some cheer, dealers said.

The FTSE 100 index closed 22.7 points higher at 4,381.1, well above its early low of 4,324.1 and just below its peak of 4,383.4, although the broader indices remained under pressure.

Volume was much stronger than of late, with 3.2 bln shares changing hands in 217,652 deals.

In the U.S. stocks ended lower Thursday as disappointing earnings from Yahoo, a lower revenue outlook from Siebel Systems and weak June same-store sales from a number of retailers appeared to point to a slowdown in economic growth.

Crude prices climbed back over $40 a barrel for the first time since early June on concern over a possible terrorist attack in the U.S.

Earlier, Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said the Al-Qaida terrorist network may attack the U.S. before the November presidential election.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended just off its session lows, down 68.73 points, or 0.7 percent, at 10,172.

The Nasdaq Composite fell 31 points, or 1.6 percent, to 1,935 whilst the S&P 500 dropped 9.23 points, or 0.8 percent to 1,109.1.

Well that cheered me up no end. Looks like we are all doomed!

Good Hunting
Manic depressive of Oxon

manic depressive of oxon, cheer up my friend - it may never happen. Tomorrow will be a spendid day.

Golddog
Manic Optomist of Brum

morning campers,whats install today :-)

morning all:
Hello to Martini,Gd,MB. As you say MB "what it installs on us today"? Martini I think the way you put in your precis i think the last one out "switches the lihts Off" as we are near some key levels.

rgds
zarif

Morning boys and girls.

ARX and WMK are still at it.

Big Al

Over the last few days, Barclays through their subsidiaries have increased their holding of PLR from 32m to 39 m. representing over 10% of the company fyi

Thx sw. How very wise of them! ;-)))

Morning everyone, yes v early for me,I'm off out for the day thats why. (no unfortunately not F1 again) :>) to M

morning all,nice start for cash buyers,get in there,thats me done.

already DD what u gunna do for the rest of the day?

CTM & ARM you little darlings up you GO :-)

amber ,i have sent you a email,,,,,as for the rest of the day,play it by eye.

Mornin all

Another hammering for the telcos on the back of THUS AGM statement

DAX is flat as a witches T*T today :-)

CTM looking good :-)

morning all

Was planning a quiet day, but so far long RPT and short FIB.

The rest is boring! ;-)

Covered FIB +3

Hi all:
Below is Tom Hougaards thoughts on the market today.
rgds
zarif

Good morning,



The odds are strongly favouring more downside, but you know as well as I do that the markets dont move down in a straight line. That is one reason why I give key levels every day. The strategy today will to biased short below 1118 in the SP500, and maximum short below 1112.



Stocks like EBay got hammered yesterday and we are short those glamour names. There was a big cycle turn last night but it remains to be seen if it will generate higher prices today. We closed at the lows last night and there is little buying interest in Europe this morning. Below yesterdays low should lead to the first square root target of 1095 off the highs.



The model for the year is supported by the 20-year cycle which points to a low into 26th July. From then on a strong rally will develop.



If any of you follow the TRIN signal we are in the territory which is usually associated with previous lows.



I got today as moving higher off the open, but only momentarily. From then onwards the market points lower the rest of the day. The odds remain high for further downside and a test of the 1100 area in the September SP500 futures.



Have a nice weekend



Tom

mornin all

Covered WHT short +32 ;-))))

CMT up over 7% on the day,about bl**dy time it moved :-)

should be interesting at 14.30 over the pond :-)

I dont even loom at Barclays any more.

Where the heck have they gone wrong?

Never mind.

Oil is King!

:)

seawall,is that larry king or oil of ulay,,,sorry mate hard to resist.

PLR moving up quickly in late trades.

MM using the bounce on support.

And Dave, it's Oil King Coal!

big day monday i here on the grape vine,that big food group,are flying at woodward,but there are problems at other parts of the group,,,hope its wrong.

All the best for the weekend all.

sw - was watching PLR. Very nice. Still running a loss on these, but oil is flavour of the month again so here's hoping.

PLR will come good ,very good,never fear.Just hang on there

Thanks saturn5 we are big fans, arn't we Big Al?

Good upward bounce in late trades, have to have faith.

Guys

For some reason I carried the loss much longer than I normally would. Hope it was 6th sense!! ;-)

dd - didnt get email, can u send again, cheers, Amber

What price CRTO on Monday? Plunged so fast that I guess a few nervous bankers might demand suspension (or recievership, pending breakup?) if it heads downward again from the start.

Big Al

So now your loss is much smaller for holding on.

I still think there is a rise coming or I would have dumped them.


Everything went down for a while, at least those that I look at, and all have ralled at the end of the week, so any dumping is definitly premature.

No idea what wiill happen next week, so time again to play by ear

Have a good weekend BA. :)

sw

I'm happy they bounced at support. If 120p had gone I was out. My original plan was s/l at 130p, but decided it needed a bit more in the end. Not too worried, but will set new stop at that bounce level.

Al