Good morning traders!

In the US, stocks dropped last night after an Intel downgrade and disappointing revenue report from Apple Computer sent the technology sector lower and inflation anxiety shook up the broader market.

All three major indices closed at five-month lows. The Dow Jones Industrials Average closed down 36.26 points at 10,216.91 as the S&P500 fell 7.19 points to 1,177.68. The Nasdaq Composite ended down 23.62 points at 2,037.47.

In Asia, at the lunch break, the Nikkei was down 173.03 points at 13,290.71, while the Hang Seng ended the morning up 6.61 points or 0.05 pct at 14,581.63.

Oil cponinued to firm with New York's main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in November up two cents at $64.14 a barrel from $64.12 in the US yesterday.

Early broker notes:

Shares in Weir Group were downgraded to 'in-line' from 'outperform' and IMI upgraded to 'outperform' from 'in-line' by Goldman Sachs

N BROWN UPGRADED TO 'OUTPERFORM' VS 'NEUTRAL' AT CSFB
SERCO UPGRADED TO 'HOLD' VS 'SELL' AT CITIGROUP
VEDANTA UPGRADED TO 'BUY' VS 'HOLD' AT DEUTSCHE BANK

Happy trading!

G.

SHARES MAGAZINE

Plays of the Week: Buy Bond International Software at 99p - Dana Petroleum at 814p

Updates: Take profits in Neteller - Buy MP Evans - Hold Straight

Double or better in three months: Langbar - Regal Petroleum - Highland Gold - Alizyme.

a very quick morning all

Midday Market Summary

Its on days like this I wish I still had the facility to trade short :-(!

It's on days like this that I wish I had more money to buy shares with.

End of day market summary

It's on days like this I think, thank goodness tomorrow is Friday! ;-)