Good morning traders!

In the US last night, the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost less than a point, closing down 0.32 at 10,216.59, well off an intraday low of 10,156.46. The S&P500 ended down 0.84 point at 1,176.84. The Nasdaq Composite , bucking the trend, ended 9.75 points higher at 2,047.22.

In Asia today, the Hang Seng ended the morning session down 148.75 points at 14,473.08, while the Nikkei was recently trading down 23.85 points at 13,425.39.

Oil eased overnight, New York's main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in November, down 33 cents at $62.75 a barrel from its close of $63.08 in the US overnight.

Early broker notes:

MORGAN CRUCIBLE UPGRADED TO 'BUY' FROM 'HOLD' AT CITIGROUP
RIO TINTO UPGRADED TO 'OVERWEIGHT' VS 'EQUAL-WEIGHT' AT MORGAN STANLEY
MAN GROUP ADDED TO MERRILL LYNCH EUROPE ONE LIST
SABMILLER UPGRADED TO 'EQUAL-WEIGHT' VS 'UNDERWEIGHT' AT LEHMAN
DIAGEO UPGRADED TO 'BUY' VS 'NEUTRAL' AT UBS

Happy Friday!

G.

Tips:
* Sell Mitchells & Butlers at 368p - Smart Telecom at 20p
* Buy Balfour Beatty at 310p - Inion Oy at 106p - P&MM at 96p - Corpora at 8.25p
Updates:
* Sell Elan Corporation - Buy Oakdene Homes
* Anglo American and RWS good value

Company News:
* Buy Petra Diamonds - Futuragene - Nautical Petroleum - Gulf Keystone Petroleum
* Sell Tottenham Hotspur.

can you post the FT article on Langbar please, their payment system is down and cant renew my subs!

AAAAAAAAAAAddddddddddddddddddffffffffffffffnnnnnnnnnnnnnn BBs are down aint they?

Pommy :-

"The interim report and account shows that Langbar earned 30.9m in interest for the six months to June 30. Pre-tax profit was 18.2m after administrative expenses of 12.7m and earnings per share of 21p."

Somerfield accepts 197p/shr takeover proposal from Apax consortium

Good morning all from a very sunny North Wales. BARC has dropped from around 586 to 545 recently. Has anyone any view?? Is it time to buy??

Got stuck In BARC earlier this year but thats another story,only thing to say really Druid2 Is be careful not to catch a falling knife.

Very sunny In North Wales?....have you been drinking :-

LOL, Good morning all :-)

End of day market summary