Good morning traders!

In Asia today, the Hang Seng ended the morning up 116.03 points at 22,806.63,
while the Nikkei was down 78.93 points at 13,288.86 at the midpoint.

US light crude for September was unchanged at $126.77 a barrel, after jumping
$4.58 on Wednesday.

Happy trading!

G.

Morning all. Market reports:

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

The US Federal Reserve unveiled a barrage of measures yesterday to lend stressed financial institutions more funds, and for longer periods, as it stepped up its drive to limit the fallout from Americas housing slump and the global credit crunch.
US Federal Reserve and ECB in joint action on emergency bank lending

Banks have been given a one-year reprieve by US accounting standard-setters from having to take up to $5,000bn of debt assets on to their balance sheets, easing fears they would be forced into a new and hasty round of capital raising.
US delays accounting changes

The state of Connecticut is suing Moody's, Standard & Poor's and Fitch, the ratings agencies, over alleged deceptive and unfair practices that are said to have cost taxpayers millions of dollars. Richard Blumenthal, Connecticut's attorney-general, has accused the three agencies of giving artificially low ratings on infrastructure projects initiated by cities and towns across the state, relative to comparable private sector projects.
Rating agencies face deception claim in US

Oil prices rallied as much as $5 a barrel Wednesday after a surprise decline in the nation's gasoline stockpile, and a forecast from Goldman Sachs that said crude could hit $149 a barrel by year's end. Light, sweet crude for September delivery rose $4.58 to settle at $126.77 on the New York Mercantile Exchange, posting its biggest one-day gain since it rose $5.60 on July 10.
Oil surges on gasoline shortfall

Tim Besley, the MPC member who voted for a quarter percentage point rise in interest rates at its meeting earlier this month, said following proposals from politicians and economists to change the type of inflation targeted or the length of the MPC's target horizon would be "entirely counterproductive".
Alistair Darling must not tamper with inflation target, Tim Besley warns

The housing market slump will wipe 50,000 off the value of the average British home and plunge one in seven homeowners into negative equity, influential new research suggests.
Average home price expected to fall 50,000

HSBC will today become the latest in a series of large mortgage lenders to trim the cost of its home loans, reducing its interest rates by up to 0.31 percentage points. Bank of Ireland, a smaller player in the market, also announced price cuts yesterday. Mortgage experts said the cuts suggested some normality was returning to the market following a six-month period in which many lenders sought to reduce the number of loans on their books as funding in the institutional money markets has dried up.
Good news for borrowers as mortgage rates fall at last

Foreign investors have become extremely wary of the Russian stock market after the Kremlin moved yet again to tighten its noose around the country's energy and mining sector, launching anti-trust probes against London-listed Evraz Holding and Raspadsky Coal.
Kremlin's heavy hand triggers foreign exodus

Etrade Financial, the online share-trading broker, on Wednesday agreed to pay $1m to settle civil charges that two of its brokerage firms broke anti-money laundering rules. The SEC said Etrade Clearing and Etrade Securities had failed to follow identification procedures for more than 65,000 customers and had not verified the identity of secondary account-holders in newly opened joint accounts over 20 months from Oct 2003.
Etrade to pay $1m in SEC civil charges

NIKKEI 225	AUSTRALIA ASX200	SHANGHAI	HANG SENG

VIX

07:00 UK Nationwide House Prices July (MoM concensus -1.2%, YoY -7.3%)
10:00 EU Eurozon CPI Estimates July (YoY consensus 4.1%)
10:00 EU Business Climate Indicator July
10:00 EU Eurozone CPI July (YoY consensus 4.1%)
10:00 EU Eurozone Consumer Confidence
10:30 UK GfK Consumer Confidence Survey July
13:30 US GDP (QoQ consensus 2.3%)
13:30 US Initial Jobless Claims (consensus 393K)
13:30 US Continuing Jobless Claims (consensus 3150K)
14:45 US Chicago Purchasing Manager July (consensus 49)
18:00 US Paulson Speaks in Washington

OUTLOOK Centrica profits seen dented by higher wholesale energy pricesOUTLOOK Shell Q2 profit propped up sky-high oil pricesOUTLOOK AstraZeneca Seroquel and Crestor seen holding up Q2 sales UPDATE

The Thursday Press Roundup

*HBOS SEES STRONGER H2; NET INTEREST MARGIN OUTLOOK MORE POSITIVE

*UNILEVER CONFIRMS OUTLOOK TO DELIVER GROWTH AHEAD OF 3-5 PCT TARGET RANGELondon shares outlook - higher after Wall St gains; HBOS, Shell numbers in focus

*REED ELSEVIER CONFIDENT ON OUTLOOK, SAYS COST SAVINGS PROGRAMME ON TRACK

STOCKWATCH Unilever expected to tick up on in-line H1, strong sales growthBROKERWATCH Arm Holding retains 'hold' on RBS, target upped to 93 pence vs 83

OUTLOOK - Hong Kong's Hang Seng Bank H1 net profit 8.7-9.42 bln hkd vs 8.87 bln

Thomson Financial UK at a glance share guideTokyo shares close flat amid uncertain global economic outlook

BROKERWATCH HBOS retained as 'hold' at RBS after H1 results

STOCKWATCH BSkyB set to gain on in-line results, net customer rise; RBS 'buy'

UK smallcap opening - Mercator Gold higher on Silver Swan investment update

UK smallcap opening - BowLeven lifted by positive IF-Ir drilling update

STOCKWATCH Lloyds TSB lower after Deutsche Bank cuts to 'hold' vs 'buy'Tokyo shares close flat amid uncertain global economic outlook - UPDATE

London shares open up after Wall St gains; HBOS rallies on smaller write-downsUK smallcap opening - SpiriTel up after FY results, confident statement

STOCKWATCH Next lower; cut to 'sell' from 'hold' at SG Secs; target cut to 800p

UK smallcap opening - European Nickel gains as political uncertainty removed