Good morning traders!

In the US last night, the Dow rose 66 points to 14,964, the Nasdaq added 39 points at
3,639 and the S&P500 gained 14 points at 1,657.

In Asia today, the Nikkei was recently up 373 points at 13,738 and the Hang Seng
ahead 156 points at 22,011.

Nymex crude oil traded at $105.03 a barrel and Brent crude at $109.90.

Gold settled at $1,371 an ounce.

Happy Friday!

G.

Bloomberg Top Headlines

Marketwatch

Global Markets

Asian Markets News

Morning all.. Thats all 3 of us again by the looks -):

Europe Factors to Watch-Shares set to extend Thursday's rally

Fri Aug 23, 2013 6:35am BST

PARIS, Aug 23 (Reuters) - European stocks are seen rising on Friday,
mirroring gains on Wall Street following a batch of upbeat macroeconomic data
from around the world.

Financial spreadbetters expect Britain's FTSE 100 to open around 18
points higher, or up 0.3 percent, Germany's DAX to open 32 points
higher, or up 0.4 percent, and France's CAC 40 to open 12 points higher,
or up 0.3 percent.

U.S. shares rose on Thursday in a session marred by a long trading halt on
the Nasdaq stock exchange due to technical problems, while Japan's Nikkei
added 2.6 percent on Friday, led by exporters which got an extra lift
from a weaker yen.

Nikkei jumps over 2 pct on upbeat global data, weaker yen

Fri Aug 23, 2013 7:18am BST
TOKYO, Aug 23 (Reuters) - Japan's Nikkei share average
jumped more than 2 percent on Friday with upbeat factory
activity data from around the world spurring broad gains, led by
exporters like Toyota Motor Corp that got an extra lift
from a weaker yen.

The Nikkei rose 2.2 percent to 13,660.55, after
shedding 0.4 percent in the previous session. For the week, the
benchmark gained 0.1 percent.

The broader Topix added 2 percent to 1,141.63 in
light trade.

Among exporters, Toyota gained 2.8 percent and Sony Corp
advanced 3.2 percent.

FTSE100 slightly lower in early deals ahead of GDP update

GBP Second Estimate GDP q/q 0.7% 0.6% 0.6%

GBP BBA Mortgage Approvals 37.2K 38.8K 37.3K

GBP Prelim Business Investment q/q 0.9% 0.6% -1.9%

GBP Index of Services 3m/3m 0.6% 0.7% 0.8%

a stock to watch KEFI

First movement up today on a larger volume than usual, had recently retrace after the rise

FTSE100 modestly higher at midday after GDP revised up

CAD Core CPI m/m 0.0% 0.0% -0.2%

CAD CPI m/m 0.1% 0.1% 0.0%

USD New Home Sales 394K 487K 497k


EUR Consumer Confidence -16 -17 -17

FTSE100 comfortably higher ahead of the long weekend

Hope you all enjoy the holiday weekend....

G.