A Brief Look At The Week Ahead

The Office of National Statistics (ONS) on Monday, may shed some light on inflation as producer price data is released. In recent months, manufacturers have mostly absorbed rising costs due to higher commodity prices, but they could begin to pass their costs down the supply chain, which may drive up retail prices - not the news high street retailers are looking for. On Tuesday, Charles Stanley expects copper miner Antofagasta, which has benefited from the trebling of the price of copper over the past three years, to report $1.49bn FY pre-tax profits, against the $1.19bn it produced last year. Peter Mason, CEO of construction and engineering group Amec, will give shareholders an update on the auction of its French maintenance firm, Amec-Spie on Wednesday. Citigroup is running the sale of the business, which has a book value of 280m but is expected to fetch around 500m. Suitors including 3i and PAI, as well as Eiffage, Vinci and Bouyges of France, have shown interest. The company has pledged to return some of the proceeds to shareholders. Wednesday's interim results from aerospace and engineering firm Smiths Group, recently ruffled by break-up speculation due to unexpectedly high costs on a tanker programme, are set to reveal a 185m pre-tax profit. Analysts will want a clear path laid out for the company, with the engineering unit the most likely candidate for a sale. Steel maker Corus, fresh from its re-entry into the FTSE100 to replace P&O and benefiting from a heightened interest in its shares amid steel industry consolidation, is expected on Thursday to report 575m in pre-tax profit for the year. Other companies under scrutiny this week include Bovis Homes on Monday; Chorion and Computacenter on Tuesday; JKX Oil & Gas and Brit Insurance on Wednesday; Alfred MacAlpine and Prudential on Thursday and Legal & General on Friday. Looks like another hectic week ahead.... Good hunting! Greystone (Greystone is Alan English, City Editor at MoneyAM.)

This is my selection for the "UPS" this week IQE

Share	Volume	Chart	News	Various
IQE price 10.125p	Higher volume with 3 times the usual last Friday	On a rising trend bouncing from support and Indicators at oversold MACD ready for the turn	After hours last Friday company came with news bringing results forward to 20th March maybe good news on the way after reports of improvement in its markets and contract win last January	Though will make losses for the year last update was very positive with good progress on sales up 55% on H2 and EBITDA breakeven on Q4' 05

        JOKE OF THE DAY

A young man at a New Years party
turns to his friend and asks for a cigarette.

'I thought you made a New Years resolution to quit smoking,'
his friend says.

'I'm in the process of quitting,'
the man says.
'Right now, I am in the middle of phase one.'

'What's phase one?'

'I've quit buying.'

     

morning campers

Good morning traders!

In Asia today, the Nikkei closed up 245.88 points at 16,361.51, while the Hang Seng Index ended the morning up 42.01 points at 15,487.06.

Oil prices continued to ease in Asian trading hours, hovering below the $60 mark. New York's main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in April, was down 8 cents at $59.88 a barrel from its close of $59.96 in the US on Friday.

Another M&A day, I guess.....

Happy trading!

G.

covered UKX long from late friday +21

looking for a long on TRY when the spread narrows,and also a long on MNKS.

long TRY 201 s/l on

Morning All,

long UKX 5933 s/l on

Good morning traders

small oils going stronger
CHP 16.25 -16.75p +0.25p
rumours of good news on a few days

IQE 10 - 10.50p +0.125p
a 250K buy by MM, finally move up the offer, still strong on the bid 3 v 1 on L2

CSH 28.25p +1.25p
Another small oil stock on the up after earlier someone paying premium for 25K



CHP 17 - 17.25 +0.875p
moving higher with volume buying

BVC is going better ahead of result on Wednesday

CHP improving all the time

        LUNCH TIME FUN

covered UKX +8
long more TRY 201.25 s/l on

long UKX again @5943 s/l on

covered UKX +8

looking for a short on UKX