Good morning traders!

In the US last night, the Dow gained 83 points at 10,393, the Nasdaq added 15
points at 2,242 and the S&P500 was up 7 points at 1,107.

In Asia today, the Nikkei was down 181.15 points at 10,154.54, while the Hang
Seng ended the morning off 463.88 points at 19,958.27.

Crude oil traded at $78.12 a barrel on Nymex.

Gold settled at $1,104 an ounce.

Happy Friday!

G.

Morning all. Market reports:

Telegraph
The Times
FT
The Guardian
The Independent
This is Money

The Federal Reserve has officially begun the US "exit strategy" from its emergency economic support measures of the past two years, raising the rate at which American banks can borrow money.
Fed fires gun on US exit strategy as it raises discount rate to 0.75pc

Britain is at risk of a Govenment deficit crisis worse than that of Greece, sparking serious fears over the economic stability of the country.
Britain at risk of worse deficit crisis than Greece

The financial community punished the pound and the gilt market after figures published today showed Britain had plunged further into the red by borrowing ￡4.3bn last month.
'Bond vigilantes' offload gilts as UK plunges into the red

Expectations are rising in the markets that Greece will attempt to issue new bonds next week, in a high-risk move to boost its credibility among investors, reports the FT.
Greece mulls high-risk bond move

NIKKEI 225	AUSTRALIA ASX200	HANG SENG	SHANGHAI COMPOSITE

KOSPI	SENSEX
NYMEX CRUDE	GOLD	VIX

BATS Nomura: reiterated buy, tp raised to 2350 from 2130
BLND Citigroup: initiated buy
EZJ UBS: downgraded to neutral from buy, tp raised to 430 from 420
HFD Citigroup: upgraded to buy from hold
HMSO Citigroup: initiated buy
LAND Citigroup: initiated buy
PNN Merrill: reiterated underperform, tp raised to 415 from 385
SVT Merrill: reiterated neutral, tp raised to 1120 from 1070
VED HSBC: upgraded to overweight from neutral, tp 3300

Morning guys.
Was surprised to see the markets and US futures down this morning.
Then I spied the news that the US Fed Reserves had increased its discount rate by 0.25% and see why the negativity.
Was looking for a continuation of the week's growth but not so sure now.

London open: US rate rise unnerves investors19-02-2010 08:46

Last night's surprise decision by the US Federal Reserve to hike the so-called discount rate from 0.5% to 0.75% has damped down sentiment this morning.

The dollar has surged on the news sending miners sharply lower. Xstrata, Randgold and Fresnillo are all down.

Anglo American is also lower. Full-year earnings tumbled in 2009 as the recession impacted demand for commodities, causing a slump in prices, but the numbers still came in a the top end of forecasts.

The world's largest platinum producer reported earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of $6.93bn, down 41.5% on 2008, as revenue fell 25% to $24.64bn. There was good news on the dividend, which Anglo said it hopes to resume "at the earliest possible time", likely in the current financial year.

Profits fell again in the final quarter of a tough 2009 for hotel group Millennium & Copthorne, but the last three months were better than expected chairman Kwek Leng Beng said. Q4 operating profits fell by 19% to 34m on revenues down 6.6% at 178m. Revenue per room or RevPAR, the standard industry measure of profitability, fell by 6.1%.

Profits surged at cleaner and pest control specialist Rentokil last year as its cost cutting programme bore fruit, with a further 75m of cuts earmarked for the current year. Pre-tax profits jumped to 65m, from 22.8m, on sales of 2.53bn, up from 2.41bn. Operating profits rose from 82m to 119m, while adjusted profits rose by 54% to 166.5m.

GlaxoSmithKline has jumped to the defence of its asthma drug Advair after the US Food and Drug Administration proposed changes to the labelling for asthma medications containing long-acting beta-agonists (LABAs), which includes GSK's best-seller.

Fixed income fund manager Blue Bay is taking advantage of a bumper six months to raise up to 45m though a placing of 13m shares. In the half-year to December, assets under management jumped 105% to $34.3bn, profit before tax soared 202% to 26m and the dividend rises by 341% to 7.5p.

Industrial engineer Charter saw profit slump by 53% in 2009 as the company battled "the challenges of recession and dislocation in the financial markets".
Profit before tax for the year ended 31 December fell to 92.7m from 197.7m in 2008 on revenue down 12% to 1.66bn. Adjusted pre-tax profit was down 41% at 126m

Opening Market Overview

UK retail sales fall at their sharpest rate for 18 months

End-of-day Market Overview

Have a good weekend all!