Hello traders!

Back to "sort-of-normal" for a while... ;-)

In the US tonight, stocks ended lower, with the S&P500 and the Nasdaq Composite breaking a seven-session run of gains as some investors chose to lock in profits.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 40.9 at 10,890.72 with the Nasdaq Composite 23.64 weaker at 2,239.37 and the S&P500 off 10.79 at 1,257.46.

Crude fell to a one-week low, pressured by warmer weather in parts of the US as well as an increase in the latest measure of domestic petroleum supplies. Crude for January delivery was down $1.35 at $57.36 a barrel.

See you in the morning with the Asian markets news.........

G.

Good morning traders!

In Asia today, the Nikkei has just closed down 59.24 points at 14,927.70, while the Hang Seng ended the morning session down 119.25 points at 14,980.75.

MARKET FORECASTS

Cardpoint. Evolution Securities forecasts year to September pretax profit 3.6m vs 1.9m; no dividend expected vs nil.

Future. Altium Securities forecasts year to September pretax profit 19.7m vs 22.5m; total dividend 2p vs 1.5p.

Kingston Communications six months to September EBITDA 34.5m vs 29.9m.

Patientline. Evolution Securities forecasts six months to September pretax loss 6.1m vs loss 4m.

Happy trading!

G.

PARTYGAMING STARTED AS 'OVERWEIGHT' BY MORGAN STANLEY, 130 PENCE TARGET

BRITISH ENERGY DOWNGRADED TO 'REDUCE' FROM 'NEUTRAL' AT UBS

Morning all.

Good Morning all

Following MRKS today. Bought a few a while back during the take over. Idea was to make a small profit if it went through - and if it didn't then enjoy the div. perks. The div has been good, but even better was all the vouchers for clothing & using the cafe I got - Saved me about 70 a few months ago, on stuff I would have bought anyway!

Happy to sit on the share. I have accounts with 2 different brokers. I wonder if I hold shares with each one, I will get 2 sets of "voucher perks"!

I was supposed to interview someone at 1pm for a vacancy we have.

They have not turned up or contacted us. I've had over 20 people apply for the job. About half did not really want the job, when I rang them up to arrange an interview. (I think they only sent thier CV to keep jobcentre happy!) This was should have been the 5th interview, but so far only 2 have turned up. One sent me a one line e-mail saying they could not come, and 2 have not turned up.

I suppose people don't want employment.

End-of-day Market Summary

little woman - sounds much like my own experience of being a UK employer. Nothing seems to have changed over the years.