Good morning traders!

In Asia today, the Nikkei was recently up 2.8% to 14,092.72, while the Hang
Seng added 63.86 at 24,313.37 in the morning session.

New York's main oil futures contract, light sweet crude for July delivery, fell 77
cents to $130.26 per barrel.

Happy trading!

G.

OUTLOOK Scottish and Southern set for strong FY results; pretax profit upOUTLOOK Man Group FY profit seen 50 pct higherOUTLOOK Antofagasta Q1 positive on higher copper prices and productionThomson Financial Europe AM at a glance share guide: Stocks rise; gold fallsTFN economic and business calendar for today

Morning all. Market reports:

Telegraph
The Times
The Times (Need to know)
FT
The Guardian
The Independent
This is Money

The debt markets in the US and Europe have begun to flash warning signals yet again, raising fears that the global credit crisis could be entering another turbulent phase. The cost of insuring against default on the bonds of Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch and other big banks and brokerages has surged over the last two weeks, threatening to reach the stress levels seen before the Bear Stearns debacle.
Credit default swaps on Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch debt have risen

Barclays Bank has revised down its calculation of analysts' consensus for its full-year profit for the second time this month cutting the figure for 2008 by nearly 8 per cent after a drop of 15 per cent two weeks ago.
Barclays full-year earnings consensus revised down

Hopes that the worst is over for mortgage borrowers were dashed yesterday after Abbey announced yet another round of rate rises. The Santander-owned bank will today increase its fixed rates by up to 0.56 percentage points after a sharp increase in the cost of wholesale funds, only one week after trumpeting a smaller rate cut of 0.17 points on some deals.
Relief on mortgages over as Abbey lifts rates

The housing slump is going global, with the adverse effects of the credit crunch on property values spreading from Europe and the US to the rest of the world.
Credit crunch sends property prices falling worldwide

One by one, countries across Asia and the Middle East are being forced to abandon price controls on fuel and energy, bringing hundreds of millions of consumers face to face with the true market cost of oil. The effect has already begun to chip away at world demand and may ultimately trigger a slide in crude prices.
Asian countries begin to burst the oil bubble

Five Arctic coastal countries will meet in Greenland on Wednesday to discuss how to carve up the Arctic Ocean, which could hold up to one-quarter of the world's undiscovered oil and gas reserves, far more than Saudia Arabias.
Diplomatic battle begins over Arctic

The next scourge to afflict the global economy after soaring oil and food prices will be a surge in the cost of water brought on by growing scarcity, one of the world's biggest companies warned yesterday.
Water shortages and drought are the next scourge, warns US group

A California man has been indicted for an inventive scheme that allegedly siphoned $50,000 from online brokerage houses E-trade and Schwab.com in six months -- a few pennies at a time. Largent allegedly used an automated script to open 58,000 online brokerage accounts, linking each of them to a handful of online bank accounts, and accumulating thousands of dollars in micro-deposits.
Man Allegedly Bilks E-trade, Schwab of $50,000 by Collecting Lots of Free 'Micro-Deposits'

NIKKEI 225	AUSTRALIA ASX200	SHANGHAI	HANG SENG

TFN UK calendar and forecasts for today

13:30 US Q1 (consensus 0.9%)
13:30 US Initial Jobless Claims (consensus 370K)
13:30 US Continuing Claims (consensus 3080K)
13:30 US Personal Consumption Q1 (consensus 1%)
15:30 US Crude Oil Inventories (consensus -625K)
15:30 US Gasoline Inventories (consensus 75K)

The Thursday Press Roundup

*MAN GROUP SAYS OUTLOOK FOR FINANCIAL MARKETS 'UNCERTAIN'London shares outlook - Higher; gains in NY, Asia after durable goods data

BROKERWATCH Standard Life cut to 'underweight' from 'neutral' by JP Morgan

Thomson Financial UK at a glance share guide

STOCKWATCH SSE seen supported as FY figs come in ahead of expectations

BROKERWATCH BT Group initiated as 'sell' at Societe Generale; target 200 pence

STOCKWATCH MAN seen up as FY results beat forecast, Credit Suisse ups targetUK smallcap opening - Elixir Petroleum adrift on fundraising move

London shares open higher after gains in NY, Asia; Man Group top FTSE 100 riserUK smallcap opening - Hot Tuna up on bullish update

UK house price decline accelerated in May

UK smallcap opening - Lipoxen rises on positive trial results for SuliXenR

UK smallcap opening - Cyan up on contract win

STOCKWATCH BG higher on hopes Origin set to accept improved bid

UK smallcap opening - Densitron hardens on swing to FY profits

UK small caps open firmer; Hot Tuna strong on bullish update