Leading shares in the UK closed higher Monday after the early handover of power to the Iraqi interim government lent a bullish air to trading on Wall Street this afternoon, dealers said.

The FTSE 100 closed up 24.6 points at 4518.7, after rallying to a near two month high of 4,545.1 earlier in the session.

All the wider indices were higher, while volumes were light; just 2.38 bln shares changed hands by mid afternoon.

Equity markets were further buoyed by another fall in the price of crude oil, on news that Iraq production has increased and Norwegian oilfields returned to normal as the government intervened to end an eight-day strike.

However --- Why is there always a however when it comes to the Markets?

In the USA Stocks backed off their highs heading into Monday's late session following an initial push that was triggered by the earlier-than-expected handover of authority in Iraq.

A positive reading in U.S. consumer spending also helped the morning charge, but with under an hour to go before the onset of evening action, major market indexes reversed their course.

The Nasdaq Composite was down 5.65 points at 2,019.82 while the Dow Jones Industrial Average had slipped 14.75 points to 10,357.

Good hunting
Howevering of Oxon

lets hope tuesday is as good as monday. happy myself to opportunities taken lets see what tuesday brings , good luck.

morning campers,

morning all.

Morning boys and girls!

Morning ladies and gents!

long ARM 120

morning everybody

mornin all

Lobbed AMT +13 - not bad for 24 hours! ;-)

Went long FIB 124p

Took the cash from JKX at 120p - and lots of it!!! ;-)))))

Out of RDW +6.5

Tom Hougaards thoughts for todays market
rgds
zarif
Good morning,



I will readily admit that I was surprised in a major way by the weakness yesterday evening. I dont know what caused the market to reverse like it. It doesnt really matter. Maybe there is liquidation of a portfolio or maybe it is the rebalancing of the Russell 2000 index. One thing I know is that support is 1132 and this will have to hold otherwise I will lean back on the short side.



The Fed meeting is tomorrow evening and maybe the selling was related to this. Either way we should know today if there is any more selling coming because if it is liquidation the seller will have to get the selling done over the next 12 trading hours. The US futures dipped down to 1127 overnight so we could see more downside today. Usually someone knows something and they will sell ahead to hedge themselves or front run the market. A lot depends on how weak Europe will open up in 20 minutes time.



I am cautiously optimistic that we will see higher prices as long as we can hold this area around 1132. For today I do have a dip near the open and a turn later on today. I suspect volume will dry up going in the FOMC meeting tomorrow, but I also know for a fact that institutions will do anything to keep prices afloat ahead of the 30th June mark-to-market cut off date. As the funds have to be fully invested I will bet that they will hold the market higher. As I stated over the weekend the market favours dip buying this week.



The good news in my mind is that the quarter-end is nearly over and I suspect we will see a 2-3 week straight line move beginning in early July.



Good luck today



Tom

25 is long term support - this looks like a nice low risk higher low to me...

Big Al.

Thanks for your thoughts on what you are trading.

Took up JKX in time to make a few quid, so I owe your a drink :)

sw - I've never refused one yet!! ;-))

Must admit my RR. and AQP long looking a bit sad, so it's not all good news. And I lobbed AMT far too early this morning. Muppet!

is this where the amateur trade in the investors room. as i have never bought/sold, shares in the same day,same month yes.
as this side,,investors get`s 10% of the hits compared to traders.

any recent buyers of eidos/itv ,,or just me .

Traders just talk more crap, dave!

;-))

???