Good morning traders!

US markets were closed yesterday for the Independence Day holiday.

In Asia today, the Nikkei was recently up 225 points at 14,244 and the Hang Seng
ahead 298 points at 20,766.

WTI crude oil traded at $101.51 a barrel and Brent crude at $105.76.

Gold settled at $1,250 an ounce.

Happy Friday!

G

Morning All, Happy Friday indeed G/S -):

Nikkei rises 2.1 pct to 5-week high on Europe stimulus hopes

Fri Jul 5, 2013 7:21am BST
TOKYO, July 5 (Reuters) - Japan's Nikkei share average rose
2.1 percent to a five-week high on Friday after the European
Central Bank and the Bank of England made unexpectedly strong
commitments to easy money policies.

The benchmark Nikkei added 291.04 points to
14,309.97, the highest closing level since May 29 but trade was
relatively light. The broader Topix index advanced 1.5
percent to 1,188.58.

French Trade Balance -6.0B -4.5B -4.5B

CHF CPI m/m 0.1% -0.1% 0.1%

FTSE100 modestly higher in early deals as the bulls prevail

German Factory Orders m/m -1.3% 1.3% -2.2%

Samsung Electronics second quarter misses forecast as smartphone worries deepen

(Reuters) - Samsung Electronics Co Ltd missed already modest expectations for its quarterly earnings guidance on Friday, deepening worries that its smartphone business may have peaked, as growth in sales of its blockbuster Galaxy phones begins to wane and new rivals emerge to eat away at its market share.

The Galaxy S, powered by Google's free Android platform, propelled the South Korean firm into the top rank of smartphone makers in 2012, overtaking Apple Inc whose iPhone had set an industry standard five years earlier.

FTSE 100 adds to modest early gains in midday trade

Exclusive: Spain banks do not need new EU aid at present - EC document

BERLIN | Fri Jul 5, 2013 11:46am BST
(Reuters) - Spain's banks do not at present need further European aid, according to a document prepared by the European Commission and the European Central Bank and seen by Reuters on Friday.

Spanish lenders, hit hard by a five year on-off recession and burst property bubble, have received financial aid from Europe of 41.3 billion euros (35.5 billion pounds) of a potential line of up to 100 billion euros.

CAD Employment Change -0.4K -4.2K 95.0K

CAD Unemployment Rate 7.1% 7.1% 7.1%

USD Non-Farm Employment Change 195K 163K 175K

USD Unemployment Rate 7.6% 7.5% 7.6%

USD Average Hourly Earnings m/m 0.4% 0.2% 0.0%

FTSE100 ends firmly lower as heavyweight miners retreat

Have a great weekend all!

G.