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The Dow managed to pick up some steam in late trading Wednesday as investors shifted profits gained on the Nasdaq to cyclical stocks. New home building in the U.S. at record pace, beating forecasts, as housing market refuses to cool. Closing figures : Dow +95 : S&P +8.5 : Nasdaq -6.8 Misys posted a 21 percent fall in first half profits hit by spending cuts at its key banking and financial clients, and said it saw no evidence of an upturn in demand. Profit for the six months to November 30 fell to 44 million pounds from 56 million in the same period a year earlier with analysts' forecasts ranged between 44 million to 46 million pounds. The US Dollar exchange rate did most of the damage.

Prudential the UK's second-largest insurer reported a 16 percent fall in full-year new sales figures and said it was cautious about the UK market for the first half of 2004 due to uncertainty over regulatory changes. New business sales for insurance products in 2003 fell to 1.6 billion pounds from 1.918 billion with analysts forecasts of 1.601 billion.

Luminar nightclub operator said it was in advanced talks to create a venture to bring gaming facilities to some of its clubs as it reported a slight easing in tough trading over Christmas. Like sales fell three percent in the five weeks to January 4, compared with a four percent decline in the first nine weeks of its second half.

Thorntons said like-for-like sales over the Christmas trading period rose 4.6 percent but margins did not meet its expectations. The firm, which said it was still in talks with potential bidders, said total sales increased 4.4 percent to 109.3 million pounds in the 28 weeks to January 10

Stanley Leisure gaming firm posted a 13 percent fall to 21.5 million in first-half profit as some punters enjoyed big wins at its Crockfords Club, but said win margins at the club had recently improved. Analyst forecasts had ranged from 19.2-22.9 million.

Enterprise Inns said first quarter pre-tax profit was in line with its expectations after a "buoyant" holiday season in its pubs continued into January

N. Brown British home shopping company <warned> that its year profit would be below its expectations after price cutting, postal strike disruption and increased bad debt provisions eroded margins in the second half.

Xansa computer services said it would pull out of North America and planned to wrap up its business there by May.

Ashtead Group (I) PBT 10m exp.

Enterprise Inns (AGM), Renishaw (I), Stanley Leisure (I)

Misys (I) PBT 45.7m exp. Prudential FY Sales 1.6bn exp.

Luminar Trading Update

St James Place Capital FY Sales Marlborough Stirling Trading Update

11.00 BCC Quarterly Economic Survey

Amgen (Q4), AT&T (Q4), Ford (Q4), Microsoft (I), Eastmen kodak

13.30 US Initial Jobless Claims (w/e 17/01) 345k exp. 15.00 US Dec Leading Indicators 0.2% exp.

Nokia (F), SAP AG (F), Siemens (Q1), KLM (Q3)

09.00 EMU Jan ECB Monthly Report

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