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The Nasdaq closed higher for the third consecutive trading day and finished with a new two-year high. A rally on the DOW pulled back most of the early losses but it still finished down 11 on the day.

Euro falls again against the dollar

Big Food Group owner of the Iceland frozen food chain and Booker wholesale business, said it continues to make steady progress. Group sales for Q3 were up 2% in line with analysts' expectations though slightly down on 2.2 percent growth in the previous quarter.

Hays recruitment said there had been no material change in its performance since its last trading update in November.Wyevale Garden Centres said like-for-like sales rose 5.7 percent year-on-year in the nine weeks to December 28. That left its fourth quarter like-for-like sales 7.9 percent higher

AMEC engineering said it expected to make further progress in 2004, helped by a recovery in its North American market and new business prospects in Iraq.

Alfred McAlpine said its overall financial performance last year had been in line with market expectations.

Taylow Woodrow housebuilder said results would be in line with its expectations, as it continued to benefit from the booming housing market.

House of Fraser department store group under persistent bid speculation said it expected "satisfactory" annual results as cost cuts helped to offset a slowdown in sales in the runup to the key Christmas period. It said like-for-like sales rose 0.1 percent in the 23 weeks to January 3, compared with a 5.4 percent rise in the first seven weeks of the second half of its financial year. (Poor Figures ??)

EasyJet Plc reported a 16 percent rise in passenger traffic for December, shrugging off pressure in the sector from renewed concerns of terror attacks. EasyJet said it carried 1,668,394 passengers last month, up from 1,433,400 passengers a year ago. Its load factor -- a measure of how full its planes are -- also rose to 80 percent from 77 percent.

Abbey National (I)

Big Food Group Trading Statement

House of Fraser (Update), EasyJet Dec Traffic Kidde Trading Statement, Taylor Woodrow Trading Statement Taylor Nelson Sofres Trading Statement,

Signet Trading Statement

00.01 Dec BRC Shop Price Index

12.00 BOE MPC Rate Announcement

Alcoa

13.30 Initial Jobless Claims (w/e 03/01) 345k exp. 15.00 Nov Wholesale Inventories 0.5% exp. 20.00 Nov Consumer Credit $5.0bn exp.

Carrefour (Update), Renault (Sales)

08.55 Dec German Unemployment Change 5k exp. 11.00 Nov PPI m/m flat exp.

12.45 ECB Rate Announcement

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