Hello traders!

In the US tonight, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 57.44 points at 8,555,
the S&P500 added 7.66 points at 918.37 and the Nasdaq Composite was little
changed at 1,808.

See you in the morning with updates.....

G.

Good morning traders!

In Asia today, the Nikkei was up 30.73 points at 9,734.45, while the Hang
Seng reached the midpoint up 104.13 points at 17,880.79.

Crude oil traded at $71.48 on Nymex.

Happy Friday!

G.

Morning all. Market reports:

Telegraph
The Times
The Times (Need to know)
FT
The Guardian
The Independent
This is Money

The World Bank has raised its economic growth forecast for China from 6.5pc to 7.2pc on the back of higher-than-expected government spending. However, the Bank warned that China's growth story could not be sustained in the long term without fundamental reforms to the economy.
China growth forecast raised by World Bank

Sales of clothing and footwear fell by 8.4pc in May compared with last year, casting severe doubt on whether the UK economy is on the road to recovery.
Downbeat retail news casts doubts on UK recovery hopes

Jim Cramer, the over-excited host of Mad Money on CNBC, has finally stumbled upon the problems affecting some ETFs - namely the United States Natural Gas Fund (UNG). And as can be expected, hes outraged. The problem is, he gets entirely the wrong end of the stick. Which is a shame.
Cramer doesnt get the UNG

The increasingly popular trading venues known as dark pools are to come under fresh scrutiny from US regulators concerned about the emerging risks they pose to the wider markets, Mary Schapiro, SEC chief said on Thursday.
SEC to focus on dark pools

Another blogger with a fertile imagination, Karl Denninger, writing on the Market Ticker, wondered if the US Treasury has been surreptitiously issuing bonds to, say, Japan, as a way of financing deficits that someone didnt want reported over the last, oh, say 10 or 20 years.
US says $134bn Treasury bonds seized in Italy are fake or are they?

"We are in for an extended period of subnormal economic growth." Mohamed El-Erian, chief executive officer of bond-investing giant Pimco, has popularized a catchier if less informative phrase for what we're in for: "the new normal."
What Comes After the Recession: A Fun-Free Recovery

With recovery elusive, a population doddering into old age and perhaps a decade of deflation in prospect, Japan may start mulling the most radical monetary policy of all the abolition of cash.
To fight deflation, abolish cash. Could Japan make reality of science fiction?

NIKKEI 225	AUSTRALIA ASX200	SHANGHAI	HANG SENG

KOSPI	VIX	GOLD	NYMEX CRUDE

BSY UBS: upgraded to buy from neutral
CHTR UBS: upgraded to neutral from sell
CPW RBS: upgraded to buy from hold
GKN Citigroup: upgraded to hold from sell
GKN Nomura: initiated neutral
KGF UBS: downgraded to neutral from buy
MGGT Nomura: initiated buy
RIO Merrill: reiterated buy, tp cut to
RR. Nomura: initiated neutral
SHI Citigroup: upgraded to buy from hold, tp 120
TW. Panmure: reiterated hold

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