1 Day 2 Day 5 Day - UK News

FTSE 250

FTSE Small Cap

FTSE TechMark

1 Day 2 Day 5 Day  Futures  US News

Nasdaq 100

S&P 500

S&P Futures

DAX / CAC    Europe News

Nikkei +106   Hang Seng +294  Asia News

10 Year Bond

U.S. stocks rose on the back of more than $65 billion in merger deals at the start of a week heavy on earnings news and economic reports.

Leeds United's annual losses have almost doubled to 49.5 million pounds.British American Tobacco shares are seen rising more than 4% after its deal to combine its U.S. tobacco business with that of R.J. Reynolds Tobacco. Profit fell 20 percent to 1.293 billion pounds in the nine months to end-September.

Westbury housebuilder said half-year profits rose by 35 percent, and added that fundamentals in the industry were unchanged with demand for new homes continuing to outstrip supply. It earned 47.6 million pounds in the period ended August 31. That compares with 35.2 million pounds posted the year before

WPP the world's third-largest advertising agency, said its revenues climbed more than one percent, and said prospects for 2004 "remain better."

BP will probably report oil prices up over 30% on higher prices.

Friends Provident life assurer reported a 14 percent rise in nine-month sales and said it was confident of increasing market share this year. Sales were at 313 million pounds against an analysts forecast of between 293-305 pounds

BP (Q3) PBT $3bn exp. British American Tobacco (Q3) PBT 689m exp.

Whitbread (H1) PBT 120-125m exp. Friends Provident (Q3), Westbury (H1), WPP (Q3)

Lockheed Martin, King Pharm., Verizon

13:30 Sep durable goods 1.0% exp. 15:00 Oct consumer confidence 79.1 exp. 19:15 Fed rate announcement 1.0% exp.

Air Liquide, Saint Gobain, Interbrew, Merck

09:00 German Oct Ifo Index 91.5 exp. 09:00 EU Sep M3 y/y 8.4% prev.

Croc@SnappyTrader.com  WWW.SnappyTrader.com