In the UK the FTSE 100 closed in negative territory as weak hotel and brewing shares offset a well-received trading update from Wolseley, whilst a Wall Street opening rally ran out of steam into the UK close.

On the economic front in the UK, inflation figures were in line with expectations with the consumer price index rising 1.6 pct in the year to June.

The FTSE 100 was down 2.3 points at 4,357.0 -- off its day high of 4,379.9.

The wider indices ended mixed, with the FTSE 250 index up 21.2 points at 6,109.4, while the FTSE Small Caps shed 0.5 points to 2,531.4.

In the US Wall Street was boosted initially by better-than-expected numbers from Johnson & Johnson, and an upgrade to 'buy' on IBM at Morgan Stanley.

US economic news surprised on the upside. The US trade deficit fell unexpectedly in May by 4.5 pct to 46.0 bln usd -- the first narrowing since last November. Economists had thought the deficit would drop to a more modest 48.1 bln usd.

August gold fell $6.10, or 1.5 percent, to close at $402.30 an ounce on the New York Mercantile Exchange, pressured by a sharp climb in the U.S. dollar.

Stocks drifted Tuesday as investors took to the sidelines amid worries about corporate earnings ahead of the latest quarterly report from tech bellwether Intel.

'A lot of keys going forward in terms of near-term market performance will be focused on in the Intel story,' said Barry Hyman equity market strategist at Ehrenkrantz King Nussbaum.

The major indexes ended the day mixed with the Dow Jones Industrial Average logging a 9.37 point, or 0.1 percent, rise to 10,247.59 and the Nasdaq Composite slipping 5.26 points, or 0.3 percent, to 1,931.66. The S&P 500 edged up 0.79 points, or 0.1 percent, to 1,115.14.

Intel saw its shares fall late Tuesday after cutting full-year gross margin targets due to increased sales of less profitable products.

For the second quarter, the world's largest chipmaker increased net income to $1.76 billion and revenue to $8.05 billion due to growing demand for its communications products, but sales of its primary computer chips reflected a seasonal decline, Intel announced.

Intel shares fell 3.3 percent to $25.27 after the results were announced. Shares closed the regular session down 10 cents to $26.14.
All in all a zzzzzzzzzzz day and with Intel looking week in after hours it does not look good for UK techs tomorrow.

Good Hunting
Sleeping beauty of Oxon

morning all

Morning all from a wet North Wales. Thanks Martini for the update.

Morning all.

Went long ICI on the big initial drop. Might be silly, might not be.

Have a good 'un

PS - JKX on a flyer. ;-)

morning all from an even more wet north wales than it was 45 mins ago,bang goes barmouth,oh well may look to buy today than.

mornin all

Morning all, from a very grey damp hampshire........

Morning all

Raining in manchester - no shock there!

See GSK still heading south - still waiting for an entry point

Morning all,

Still in the range I see. Intel rocked the markets a bit, but
this mornings drop appears to be modest, so far, on low volume.
Situation normal, then. ;-)

Melnibone.

Would agree, Melinbone. MRW behaved well!

You've piqued my interest in MRH, David 2000.

We all did well out of the gap down open on SHEL, earlier
this year, and MRH is another good solid company that may
give us a repeat performance.

Going to have a look at its divi dates etc.. for timing.

I see LLOY is sub 400p, Stockbunny.
Are you getting itchy fingers? ;-)

Melnibone.

Melnibone, you are not encouraging Bunny to go against the trend on LLOY are you?
opto

Red red wine day. Very comfy with my nasdaq short.

Hi optomistic,

Since I posted a possible Head and Shoulders in LLOY, and the
downtrend chart in the Bank Index, I sincerely hope that Stockbunny
is certainly not interpreting my post as encouragement to fill her
boots with LLOY. :-))

Melnibone.

Thanks melnibone everything does look negative with LLOY at the moment

Is this a H/S ?

melinbone, its a great trading stock bothways. Been playing it since results. Just started playing with IAP too. But Risk Reward on MRW( I assume thats who you mean not MRH) is good, and its very liquid.
IAP looks to be at bottom of steep downtrend @ 3.15-20 area, and could bounce to 35-40. Only IMHO.

Good morning all - my hands are firmly tied together to stop any
buying of any description - liquid funds not available currently to
take advantage of anything....despite bunny instincts to fill up a bit
here and there..but better not say where, because it appears several of
you are slightly concerned about my buying habits and I don't want you
guys to protectively wheel in a straight-jacket to keep me in check!
;.) - all this gentle warning off is so sweet, just shows there is heart
on the trading boards!!!

Yes, I did mean MRW. Had a look at some Rns's and with ref to the long
side I didn't like that last 'Holdings in Company' one.

It mentioned that the stock is available for lending. This means loaning
it to Bears for shorting.

Emailpat, that is the possible H&S I was looking at, and for those
that missed it this the the Banking Index chart. If this carries on
it will not auger well for the Ftse in general, let alone Banks.



Logging off for a bit now.
Catch you all at the US open.

Melnibone.

Early long on ICI paid handsomely, halved AQP holding for +14 (I think), JKX took off and came back, the rest floundering slightly.

Oh well, slightly down at present.

If LLOY gets <395p, I'll long it.

Going up slowly....several stocks now showing blue or green from red
potentially better afternoon??

stockbunny - UKX bounced off last Thursday's low, almost on the button.

Fingers crossed then for this afternoon - good luck all!

Got a few more PLR at 121.25p

:>)

Long FIB 102 - oooer!

Seems they have all disappeared from here today Big Al and
you're manning the room single-handed!
(Here's a coffee and a do'nut from the tea-rooms to keep you going!)

Thx - needed that.

Thats where all the do'nuts have gone, smuggled in here, umm!!

optomistic - bugger orf, they're mine.

LOL!!!

Eating Bunny's superb fare you could become 'Bigger Al' :-))

FTSE now down only 8.2 - keep going.....
Ah Opto - so where have you been hiding??
(plenty of do'nuts guys calm down..)

Been sulking Bunny, too much red showing in my lot.

Afternoon all,

Looks like the US is going for a bit of opening gap down filling.
Won't get any direction until it does, IMHO.

Melnibone.

optomistic - I need to. For those who've met me with confirm, I am anything but large. ;-)) I need all the donuts I can stuff in.

Dow's up/ FTSE's up - shame there's so little time left!

US closed the gap open and is now flat lining up against resistance.

Should be interesting after Europe closes.

Melnibone.

Red for me today, but hardly surprising as most of the market was the same.

Added PLR, longed FIB, lobbed half of AQP and won intraday ICI.

.............and tomorrow's another day. Still tilted long.

Have a good evening

Hi melinbone, chart worked a treat on both MRW and IAP. Did you catch either of them? Tough call on MRW now, should bounce @ 180 a little. But not sure for how long.

Fed saved the day today. r we going to suffer the INTL effect tomorrow?