A Brief Look At The Week Ahead

British Airways will be facing a raft of questions from investors on Friday when the airline unveils interim results. High on the list of concerns could well be the threatened strike by cabin crew workers that has already caused BA to cancel all flights from Gatwick and Heathrow on Tuesday and Wednesday. Analysts predict BA could lose at least 50m because of the action by the TGWU. On Wednesday, BSkyB is expected to register a healthy rise in quarterly earnings, fed by an increase of more than 200,000 subscribers to its services. More important, however, will be the findings of the OFT, which publishes its initial findings on whether the stake bought by BSkyB in rival ITV last year was damaging to competition. For Wolfson Microelectronics, the big question at its final numbers on Wednesday will concern the iPhone. Analysts will want to know if the company is one of the suppliers of the latest invention from Apple. With little hope of light being shed on the iPhone, investors are bracing themselves for an uninspiring performance. Analysts expect Wolfson to report $47.3m in pre-tax profit, up from $38.7m in 2005. AstraZeneca, the UK's number two drugs company, is expected to unveil strong annual profit and turnover growth on Thursday, but it will still be dogged by questions about its pipeline of new treatments. Mining giant Rio Tinto has interim results on Thursday. In keeping with a bumper year for commodities around the world, analysts are expecting a set of buoyant figures. Once again, the engine behind the company's growth is China. Amongst others in the spotlight this week will be Filtronic on Monday; Dobbies Garden Centres and GW Pharmaceuticals on Tuesday and Royal Dutch Shell on Thursday. Good hunting! Greystone (Greystone is Alan English, City Editor at MoneyAM.)

Mediwatch Final results monday morning
:-)

Analysis selection from the "UPS" IGE 24p

IGE 24p

A strong rising volume last Friday

A bullish scenario last November as it went into a Golden Cross in the chart following with a BREAKOUT and a retracement, now is on the bounce aiming for higher prices

The 3D and 2D X-ray imaging devices are gaining new business for the inspection of corporate and airport security, is ready for profitability in 2007 as the total order intake is at record levels

Has signed two distribution and a licence agreement within the security sector recently and could lead later to further opportunities for the special projects group

Golden Cross Chart for IGE


Golden Cross
"To form a Golden Gross, the 50 day moving average must cross from below the 200 day MA to above the 200 day MA, whilst the 200 day MA must also be rising".

Another one for the "UPS"

ITL - Mid 45.25p
Reason - Co. expects revenue growth for 2007 to be in the "low double digit %". Won a few substancial contracts during last 2 month, had a chart BREAKOUT recently with retracement afterwards, is now moving higher again with volume since last Thursday, Indicators rising from oversold

        JOKE OF THE DAY

Two married buddies are out drinking one night
when one turns to the other and says,

"You know, I don't know what else to do.
Whenever I go home after we've been out drinking,
I turn the headlights off before get to the driveway.

I shut off the engine and coast into the garage.
I take my shoes off before I go into the house,
I sneak up the Stairs, get undressed in the bathroom.
I ease into bed and my wife STILL wakes up
and yells at me for staying out so late!"

His buddy looks at him and says, Well,
you're obviously taking the wrong approach.
I screech into the driveway, slam the door,
storm up the steps, throw my shoes in the closet,
jump into bed, slap her on the ass and say,
"WHO'S HORNY".....?!!!"

and she acts like she's sound asleep.

Keep an Eye

NPT - Mid 17.25p
Reason - Slowly rising for the last couple days from support, last week acquired Chariot (UK) PLC's online charity lottery operations as it moves to enhance its television-based interactive gaming business.

Friday's market reports:

Telegraph
Telegraph (Bloomberg summary)
The Times
FT
The Guardian
The Independent
This is Money

Some other stories of possible interest:

Torex profit warning sparks inquiry
Telegraph Podcast on Torex (MP3) - interesting (and one unhappy hedge-fund manager!)
Antigua defeats US in gaming law challenge
'These subpoenas and arrests are sheer hypocrisy'
Miners ask UN to stop China excluding them from Africa
'Dr Doom' Tony Dye to wind up hedge fund because of ill health

THE self-professed top dog for music last week emerged as the real dog of the stock market: HMV, the high-street music retailer, has become one of the most shorted UK stocks of all time.

HMVs share price rose a little when it emerged recently that Brandes Investment Partners, the value investor, had increased its stake in the music retailer. The American fund manager is now the groups biggest shareholder with 40.8m shares, a 10.15% stake.
HMV is going to the dogs

A couple of years ago, MRW was in a vaguely similar situation, and I believe Brandes started buying in the 190s. The sellers kept the upper hand and the price sank to the low 170s, but the Brandes style is to determine a value point after which they'll keep buying the stock within certain limits. This set up a fascinating daily battle where a weak price would suddenly receive support from some very large orders appearing on the buy side of the book. These 'Brandes orders' if that's what they were, would then proceed to chase the price up until they'd run through or they pulled off. It became predictable and I did quite well out of MRW at the time. In the last few days I've taken several points from HMV because the patterns have looked similar and although there are no certainties the 'Brandes versus Rest-of-the-World' battle may be worth a watch.

Australian shares close lower on profit taking, Wall St fall - UPDATEAsian markets summary

CS. downgraded to hold from buy - Citigroup SAB downgraded to neutral from buy - Goldman Sachs YELL upgraded to buy from neutral - target 670 - Merrill Lynch

Good morning traders!

In Asia today, the Nikkei closed up 48.53 points at 17,470.46, while the Hang Seng recently stood at 20,219.55, down 61.58 points.

New York Mercantile Exchange's main oil futures contract, light sweet crude for delivery in March, was up 42 cents at $55.84 a barrel from $55.42 in late trading in the US Friday.

Happy trading!

G.

OUTLOOK - UK smaller companies results for the 2 weeks to Feb 9

Tokyo shares close slightly higher in rangebound trade ahead of more results

London shares outlook - seen slightly higher as busy week for earnings looms

AFX UK at a glance share guide - weekend

Tokyo shares close slightly firmer ahead of more results - UPDATE

AFX UK at a glance share guide