Good morning traders!

In the US Friday, the Dow rose 3 points to 15,559, the Nasdaq added 8 points at 3,613
and the S&P500 gained 2 points at 1,692.

In Asia today, the Nikkei was recently down 333 points at 13,797 and the Hang Seng
off 125 points at 21,843.

WTI crude oil traded at $104.70 a barrel and Brent crude at $107.17.

Gold settled at $1,321 an ounce.

Happy Monday!

G.

What's Moving Pre-Market

Stocks claw back in final minutes
Jul 26 4:27pm:
Wall Street staged a comeback Friday: U.S. stocks inched higher in the final minutes of trading after being down sharply earlier in the day. More

Morning All.

European stock index futures signal higher open

LONDON, July 29 | Mon Jul 29, 2013 7:02am BST
(Reuters) - European shares were set to edge higher in early trading on Monday, with investors betting major central banks will offer reassurance that their monetary policies will remain accommodative for the foreseeable future.

At 0601 GMT, futures for Euro STOXX 50, Britain's FTSE 100, Germany's DAX and France's CAC were 0.2 to 0.3 percent higher.

Nikkei slides to 4-week low; strong yen, earnings concerns hurt

Mon Jul 29, 2013 7:33am BST
TOKYO, July 29 (Reuters) - Japan's Nikkei average slumped
below 13,700 for the first time in almost a month on Monday on
the back of a strong yen and lackluster earnings, while caution
ahead of key market-moving events, including Chinese
manufacturing data and a U.S. Federal Reserve meeting, sidelined
investors.

The benchmark Nikkei fell 3.3 percent to 13,661.13,
a level not seen since July 1, while the broader Topix
dropped 3.3 percent to 1,128.45. All of its 33 sub-sectors
finished the day in negative territory.

The market largely shrugged off news that Prime Minister
Shinzo Abe has ordered a study of alternatives to a plan to
double the sales tax to 10 percent. But traders said the
possibility of the planned tax increase being delayed or watered
down could negatively impact the equity market in the medium to
long run.

Opening Market Overview

GBP Net Lending to Individuals m/m 1.5B 1.4B 1.2B

GBP M4 Money Supply m/m 0.1% 0.2% 0.0%

GBP Mortgage Approvals 58K 60K 58K

GBP CBI Realized Sales 17 11 1

FTSE100 modestly higher at midday, supported by miners

US Pending Home Sales (MoM) Low Impact -0.4 -0.1% 5.8%

US Pending Home Sales (YoY) Medium Impact 10.9% 11.5% 12.1%

Dallas Fed Manufacturing Business Index Medium Impact 4.4 7.30 6.50

FTSE 100 ends a low volume day just marginally higher