Evening all,

Thanks for everyones contribution & Bullshare for your thoughts.

I've got a very busy couple of days ahead of me before I can take it a bit easier for Christmas. Just discovered I'm going to start the New Year -4 days holiday from work. Never had that problems when I was trading, but then I couldn't make enough trading to trade & to live........ c'est la vie.....

Leading shares are expected to start the last week of trading before Christmas up slightly as hopes of a Santa rally offset continued pressure on the drug sector, dealers said.

Spread betting group IG Index is flagging the FTSE 100 to open around 4 points higher at 4701, after closing on Friday 38.4 points lower at 4,696.8 as AstraZeneca admitted key cancer drug Iressa had failed tests.

Wall Street also finished for the week lower, ending a four-day winning streak, hit by a fresh spike in crude prices and after Pfizer announced that use of its Celebrex treatment increased cardiovascular risk.

But the drop was not sharp enough to erase the week's gains, with the DJIA closing 55 points lower at 10,649.

ASTRAZENECA CUT TO 'NEUTRAL' VS 'BUY' AT UBS
ASTRAZENECA DOWNGRADED BY CSFB, JP MORGAN

Lehman Brothers cut its price target on Astra to 2,160 from 2,250, but retained its 'equalweight' stance on the shares.
Lehman said it continues to prefer GlaxoSmithKline PLC.

BIG FOOD CONFIRMS 95P/SHARE AGREED BID FROM BAUGUR LED CONSORTIUM

MARKETS
Tokyo: Nikkei closed at 11,103.42, up 25.10
Hang Seng midday 14,027.59, up 35.15

BREAKING NEWS - MONDAY
* Mystery group bids 9.35 bln usd to win auction for Yukos arm - FT
* Militants linked to al-Qaeda renew a threat to attack Saudi oil supplies, in a defiant challenge to the intense security put in place to defend the kingdom's oil installations - FT
* Painkillers face new US ruling; concerns about cox-2 class drugs could lead to removal from market; FDA action follows fears over Pfizer and Merck treatments - FT
* Lazard aims for New York listing in March - FT
* CORUS refuses to rule out a link with ThyssenKrupp as chief executive Philippe Varin says Corus will look at all opportunities - FT
* EMI and Sony form a far-reaching alliance on new digital products and distribution in North America - FT
* Shares in CAMBRIDGE ANTIBODY TECHNOLOGY will be suspended this morning until the High Court in London rules on a royalty dispute that could radically affect the fortunes of the biotechnology company - FT
* MANCHESTER UNITED tells Malcolm Glazer it will not discuss any bid for the club unless he makes a formal offer - FT
* Glazer plans fresh 80 mln stg bid for MANCHESTER UNITED - Independent
* Euronext poised to make rival offer for LONDON STOCK EXCHANGE - Express
* Travelex, the world's biggest foreign exchange company, may be sold for more than 1 bln stg after receiving a number of unsolicited approaches from private equity firms - Guardian
* Primark, the discount retail chain owned by ASSOCIATED BRITISH FOODS, understood to have expressed an interest in acquiring at least some of the Allders department stores that have been put up for sale by property group MINERVA - Telegraph
* Financial Services Authority to probe the movement in CAIRN ENERGY shares in the run-up to the 18 pct plunge on Friday; the shares dropped the day before, ahead of an announcement of a fall in its reserves in India and a change in its tax position - Mail

MONDAY PRESS COMMENT
FT
THE LEX COLUMN comments on new accounting standard for stock options, US stock trading, Japanese tax
Independent
Small Talk: Stephen Foley comments on ASOS, INDEPENDENT INTERNATIONAL INVESTMENT RESEARCH, QXL RICARDO, WH IRELAND (anticipation of further strong trading news), URUGUAY MINERAL EXPLORATION, AVANTI SCREENMEDIA, ANKER (joining AIM this week), TOAD (acquisition today of a 25 pct stake in 21st Century Crime Prevention)

Morning all.

Morning!

Gosh, it is quiet here. Everyone Xmas shopping...? ;-)

Long AZN, XTA, BPRG.....

Orthopaedic devices group Smith & Nephew Group PLC warned that the fourth quarter will be hit by an exceptional charge of 80 mln stg, after two of its secondary insurers refused to cover their share of the liability costs arising from its macrotextured femoral knee component implant product.
S&N is currently disputing 12 mln stg which it has already spent on further surgery and the settlement of claims arising from the macrotextured knee implant -- for which its second level of insurers is now refusing to pay it back.
And the group warned that the total liability could rise to as much as 105 mln stg.
"Our primary insurers have acted very much as partners in this process and they have received exactly the same information as the excess layer insurers, but at this stage two of the excess level insurers have declined to cover us going forward," Chief executive Sir Chris O'Donnell told analysts this afternoon.
He was speaking on a conference call after the group's announcement, in which he refused to disclose the identity of the group's insurers, nor Smith & Nephew's total insurance limit.
"Our view is these guys should pay -- it is our intention to get them to pay," he added.
Smith & Nephew withdrew the macrotextured knee implant from the market in August 2003, and has been settling and revising the implants in affected patients as fast as possible since the problem -- between the bone-to-implant interface in certain patients -- was detected.
"We are managing this very actively, it is having no negative effect on our business, and it certainly is our view that we have more than adequate insurance cover to cover any likely macrotextured claims," O'Donnell said.
He added that the group has had "some skirmishes with plaintiff lawyers" in the US over these knee implants, but said that no class actions have been filed in the US.

Closed AZN and XTA for a few. Still long BPRG. ;-)