Good morning traders!

In the US last night, the Dow rose 65 points to 14,975, the Nasdaq added 31 points at
3,434 and the S&P500 gained 9 points at 1,615.

In Asia today, the Nikkei was recently up 126 points at 13,978 and the Hang Seng off
82 points at 20,721.

WTI crude oil traded at $98.06 a barrel and Brent crude at $103.

Gold settled at $1,250 an ounce.

Good hunting!

G.

Asian shares hold firm, Nikkei rises on U.S. data

SINGAPORE/SYDNEY | Tue Jul 2, 2013 7:03am BST
(Reuters) - Asian stocks rose on Tuesday with Tokyo's Nikkei hitting its highest in nearly five weeks after encouraging manufacturing data in Europe and the United States helped cheer markets fretting about a slowing Chinese economy.

European shares were seen likely to open slightly lower, with spreadbetters expecting Britain's FTSE 100 to open 5 to 15 points lower, Germany's DAX falling 14 to 20 points and France's CAC 40 down 1 to 10 points.

Morning All.

Spanish Unemployment Change -127.2K -83.5K -98.3K

FTSE100 slightly lower in early deals as investors consolidate

Exclusive - Greece has three days to deliver or face consequences: EU officials

BRUSSELS | Tue Jul 2, 2013 8:42am BST
(Reuters) - Greece has three days to reassure its lenders it can deliver on conditions attached to its international bailout in order to receive the next tranche of aid, four euro zone officials said on Tuesday.

Athens and its creditors unlocking 8.1 billion euros (6.9 billion pounds) of rescue loans resumed talks on Monday on after a two-week break during which the government almost collapsed over redundancies at state broadcaster ERT.

There is a general dissatisfaction with progress in Greece when it comes to reforming its public sector, such as tax and custom collection or health care services, a senior euro zone official involved in negotiations said.

GBP Construction PMI 51.0 51.3 50.8

GBP 10-y Bond Auction 2.58|1.8 2.37|1.5

FTSE100 firmly lower at midday as financials suffer

USD Factory Orders m/m 2.1% 2.0% 1.0%

USD IBD/TIPP Economic Optimism 47.1 49.3 49.0

BoE snubs banks to press on with capital rule

LONDON | Tue Jul 2, 2013 3:27pm BST
(Reuters) - Bank of England policymakers said on Tuesday they would press ahead quickly with a new curb on banks' risk exposure and would not be deflected by industry lobbying against the plan.

Paul Tucker, the central bank's deputy governor for financial stability, told British lawmakers that the new rule, which would require UK banks to meet a limit on lending as a proportion of their capital, should be introduced now.

FTSE100 pares early losses after strong afternoon rally