Well as you can see from the report no way as upbeat as yesterday, but things over in Yankland I beleive are on course for an xmas spike. How do we play it????, well first of all as usual keep around %15 of your portfolio in cash and the wait for the opportunities that present themselves.

I for one would now as I have been for the last 2 months looking at Gold and base metals. ZINC and COPPER. Any thouhts on this guys????????. SB I know you will be looking in anything to contribute???.

Anyway heres the gaff fro the US..................



AFTER HOURS In The US

Priceline tumbles 22 percent

By Carolyn Pritchard, CBS MarketWatch.com
Last Update: 6:09 PM ET Nov. 4, 2003


SAN FRANCISCO (CBS.MW) -- Priceline.com tumbled more than 22 percent in after-hour trading Tuesday after reporting third-quarter earnings that beat Wall Street's forecast but revenue that missed.



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But it was the Web travel booking site's forecast that investors were paying attention to in late trading. Priceline (PCLN: news, chart, profile) warned that fourth-quarter net income would come in at 2 cents to 8 cents a share, shy of the 11-cent average estimate of analysts polled by Thomson First Call.

Norwalk, Conn.-based Priceline said it swung to a third-quarter profit of $9.7 million, or 24 cents a share, on revenue of $243.4 million, from a loss of $24.3 million, or 64 cents a share, including charges, on revenue of $240 million. Respondents to Thomson's poll expected Priceline to post a profit of 21 cents a share on revenue of $251.3 million.

Shares of Priceline fell $6.59, or 22.5 percent, to $22.66 in late dealings and topped the volume-leader list on Nasdaq.

Video production technology firm Focus Enhancements (FCSE: news, chart, profile) said it swung to a profit in the third quarter. The company reported a profit of $532,000, or a penny a share. That compares with a loss of $1.5 million, or 4 cents a share, in the year-ago period. Revenue more than doubled, to $10.8 million from $4.1 million.

Looking ahead, the company said it expects to post a profit of a penny per share for the next two quarters, on sales ranging from $7 million to $8.5 million.

Shares of Focus lost 38 cents, or 10.3 percent, to change hands for $3.30 in after-hours trading action.

Heading in the opposite direction were shares of Primus Telecommunications (PRTL: news, chart, profile). The company swung to a profit in the third quarter, earning $5.8 million, or 6 cents a share, versus a loss of $14.4 million, or 22 cents a share, in the same period last year. Sales rose to $328.3 million from $260.5 million.

Primus raised its full-year forecast for 2003 to "in excess of" 46 cents a share on sales of $65 million to $70 million. The company's previous forecast called for earnings of 38 cents to 42 cents a share on sales of $50 million to $60 million.

Shares of Primus rose 81 cents, or 8.8 percent, to $10.

And ViroLogic (VLGC: news, chart, profile), which makes tests to measure drug effectiveness, said its third-quarter loss narrowed in the latest period. The company lost $400,000, or a penny a share, versus a loss of $5.6 million, or 23 cents a share, in the same quarter last year. Sales rose 54 percent, to $9.1 million from $5.9 million.

ViroLogic shares soared 13.5 percent to $1.85 in late dealings.

Esperion Therapeutics (ESPR: news, chart, profile) said after the bell that results of a new study show its investigational product candidate, ETC-216, reduced the size of plaque in coronary arteries and reversed atherosclerosis. The results of the study appear in the Nov. 5 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, according to Esperion.

Shares of Esperion added $1.91, or 10.9 percent, to $19.41.

Also busy were shares of Novell (NOVL: news, chart, profile). The software maker ended the regular session up 21 percent after announcing it had won a $50 million vote of confidence from IBM and also agreed to buy a company that could expand its role in the growing market for the Linux operating system. See full story.

After the bell, shares of Novell rose 3.4 percent, to $7.58.

Shares of Redback Networks (RBAK: news, chart, profile) were seeing heavy trading again. The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Monday.

At last check, Redback shares had edged lower by a penny, to 32 cents.

Also after the bell, Prudential Financial (PRU: news, chart, profile) said it earned $230 million, or 46 cents a share, down 41 percent from the same period last year. Prudential said after-tax adjusted operating income for the period was $361 million, or 70 cents a share, compared to $303 million for the same period last year. Analysts had expected earnings of 56 cents a share, according to Thomson First Call. The Newark, N.J.-based company said it expected earnings in the range of $2.40 to $2.50 for the year, based on after-tax adjusted operating income.

Prudential had its securities division thrust into the spotlight earlier Tuesday after a Massachusetts regulator filed fraud charges against five of its former brokers. William Galvin, secretary of the commonwealth for Massachusetts, claimed that the five engaged in a scheme that allowed offshore hedge funds to profit at the expense of mutual fund shareholders. See full story.

Share of Prudential gained 30 cents in after-hours trading, to $38.35.

The Nasdaq-100 After Hours Indicator, which tracks late trading in the technology sector, shed 1.57 points, or 0.11 percent.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average ($INDU: news, chart, profile) lost 19.63 points, or 0.2 percent, to end Tuesday's session at 9,838.83, while the Nasdaq Composite ($COMPQ: news, chart, profile) shed 9.74 points, or 0.5 percent, to close at 1,957.96. See Market Snapshot.

Carolyn Pritchard is a reporter for CBS.MarketWatch.com in San Francisco.ENDS.


More AFTER HOURS
•Protein Design gains on results; Cephalon falls 6:24pm ET 11/03/03
•Microsoft, CV Therapeutics busy after the bell 6:00pm ET 10/31/03
•Skyworks tumbles, Brightpoint surges after the bell 5:53pm ET 10/30/03
•Akamai Technologies tops after-hours trading 6:03pm ET 10/29/03
•LookSmart soars, Gilead tumbles after the bell 5:46pm ET 10/28/03


Latest Industry News Get Alerted on News in this Industry
•Merck, pharma stocks close lower as slide persists 4:15pm ET 11/04/03
•Abel sees drugs, biotechs paying off 12:01am ET 11/04/03
•Protein Design gains on results; Cephalon falls 6:24pm ET 11/03/03
•Cephalon to buy Cima Labs for $515 mln 5:55pm ET 11/03/03
•Teva closes up in mixed pharma sector 4:34pm ET 11/03/03ENDS.

GF.

A superb day on the US markets backed up by excelent after hours trade.http://toplist.island.com/ds/data/toplist/toplist.jsp?filter=all&width=555&tabs=true&links=true&sort=tradedshares&order=asc&html=true&ah=true&rows=50

cheers GF.