Good morning traders!

In the US last night, the Dow fell 65 points to 16,417, the Nasdaq rose 4 points to
4,219 and the S&P500 lost 2 points at 1,846.

In Asia today, the Nikkei was recently up 17 points at 15,763.9 and the Hang Seng
ahead 189 points at 23,175.

WTI crude oil traded at $93.96 a barrel and Brent crude at $107.09.

Gold settled at $1,240 an ounce.

Happy Friday!

G.

Intel shares drop after earnings miss Street view

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Intel Corp. shares declined in the extended session Thursday after the Dow Jones Industrial Average component’s quarterly results fell short of Wall Street expectations.

Intel AXP -0.43% shares fell 4.8% to $25.27 on very heavy volume after the chipmaker reported an adjusted fourth-quarter profit of 51 cents a share on revenue of $13.8 billion. Analysts surveyed by FactSet had forecast quarterly earnings of 52 cents a share on revenue of $13.72 billion. Intel shares were the largest traded issue in after hours activity with more than 6 million shares exchanging hands.

Intel also forecast first-quarter revenue between $12.3 billion and $13.3 billion. Analysts expect $12.78 billion. Positive sentiments regarding PC chip stabilization were not met well by skeptics. By the end of Intel’s analyst call , shares were down 4.5%.

Looks like Millipede has finished with the energy companies for now...

Ed Miliband urges bank branch sell-off

Ed Miliband is to say the "big five" banks must give up "significant" numbers of branches in an effort to make the industry more competitive.

The Labour leader will argue financial services have been "an incredibly poor servant of the real economy", citing a drop in lending to businesses.

In a speech, he will promise to create at least two "challenger" banks.

THINK TWICE BEFORE DEALING WITH JARVIS STOCKBROKERS

ED MILLIBAND IS STILL LIVING IN CUCKOOLAND,THOSE LABOUR DESTROYED THE COUNTRY,BY ALLOWING MORE THAN FIVE MILLIONS IN THE COUNTRY ,NOW WE ARE PAYING THE BIG PENALTIES

Opening Market Overview

Knock off the caps lock key dhiru or everyone will think you are shouting at them... ;)

GBP Retail Sales m/m 2.6% 0.5% 0.3%

Thanks, Greystone. The caps also really
hurt some people's eyes, something many
posters on internet sites do not appreciate,
never mind complaining about what Milliband says.

Midday Market Overview

USD Building Permits 0.99M 1.01M 1.01M

USD Housing Starts 1.00M 0.99M 1.09M

USD Prelim UoM Consumer Sentiment 80.4 83.4 82.5

USD Prelim UoM Inflation Expectations 3.0% 3.0%

USD JOLTS Job Openings 4.00M 3.97M 3.93M

End-of-day Market Overview

Hope you all have a great weekend!

G.