Morning all. Market reports:

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

The yield on the benchmark 10-year gilt, which moves in the opposite direction to the prices, almost reached 4pc in the minutes after Alistair Darling began delivering his Budget in Parliament. "There was a lack of substance and clarity in the deficit reduction plans," said one senior trader.
UK Government bonds fall as markets left disappointed

The euro slumped to a ten-month low against the dollar yesterday after Portugals credit rating was cut by one of the big ratings agencies. Fitch Ratings downgraded Portugal for the first time, cutting its rating by one notch and warning that further reductions were possible.
Euro dragged down after credit agency takes swipe at struggling Portugal

Between 1999 and 2002, Mr Brown ordered the sale of almost 400 tons of the gold reserves when the price was at a 20-year low. Since then, the price has more than quadrupled, meaning the decision cost taxpayers an estimated 7 billion, according to Mike Warburton of the accountants Grant Thornton. The Information Commissioner has ordered the Treasury to release some details. The Treasury must publish the information demanded within 35 calendar days.
Explain why you sold Britain's gold, Gordon Brown told

Dozens of tiny companies have gotten big stock-market boosts simply by adding the word China to their names. While the total dollars at stake are small, the trend is reminiscent of the Internet bubbles heyday, when a company could launch its stock price to the moon merely by tacking .com onto its official name.
Whats in a company name? If its China, it matters

NIKKEI 225	AUSTRALIA ASX200	HANG SENG	SHANGHAI COMPOSITE

KOSPI	SENSEX
NYMEX CRUDE	GOLD	VIX

Good morning traders!

In the US last night, the Dow lost 53 points at 10,836, the Nasdaq fell 16 points at
2,399 and the S&P500 dropped 6 points at 1,168.

In Asia today, the Nikkei was up 19.8 points at 10,834.83, while the Hang Seng
ended the morning off 258.5 points at 20,750.12.

Crude oil traded at $80.48 a barrel on Nymex.

Gold retreated to $1,088 an ounce.

Happy trading!

G.

Morning all,
Looks like the Shares Forum site has been taken down - either that or Conrad Wyndham has forgotten to pay the rent. I will be encouraging our little community to migrate to this thread in the hope that we can keep it going. We had a small but very select and very friendly group of posters whose only aim was to help each other make a few bob on the market - no egos! You are welcome to join us if you wish.

Opening Market Overview

You will always find a welcome here Lord Gnome. :)

HVE continuing its long descent into oblivion. Time to get the bin bag out. A salutary lesson in the benefits of setting proper stop loss levels.

RXP - looks like the attempted breakout failed and we're back in the old trading range. Still waiting for good news from the drill bit to ignite this. I could be waiting a long time - I already have!

CHU looking strong today. Are we about to make progress?

End-of-day Market Overview