Good morning traders!

In the US last night, the Dow rose 147 points to 15,677, the Nasdaq gained 38 points
at 3,784 and the S&P500 added 21 points at 1,726.

In Asia today, the Nikkei was recently up 215 points at 14,720 and the Hang Seng
ahead 383 points at 23,500.

WTI crude oil traded at $108.07 a barrel and Brent crude at $110.60.

Gold settled at $1,308 an ounce.

Good hunting!

G.

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FTSE Futures Chart

UK Stocks-Factors to watch on Thursday

LONDON, Sept 19 | Thu Sep 19, 2013 6:57am BST
(Reuters) - Britain's FTSE 100 index is seen surging 75 to 76 points, or as much as 1.1 percent, on Thursday, according to financial bookmakers. For more on the factors affecting European stocks, please click on

* Equities across the globe rallied after the U.S. Federal Reserve surprised investors after the close of European markets on Wednesday by postponing the start of a reduction in its massive monetary stimulus, saying it wanted to wait for more evidence of solid economic growth.

* In the previous session, the UK blue chip index closed down 11.35 points, or 0.2 percent, at 6,558.82 points. The index is up more than 11 percent so far this year.

Nikkei hits 8-wk high as Fed's policy surprise spurs commodity stocks

Thu Sep 19, 2013 7:12am BST
TOKYO, Sept 19 (Reuters) - Japan's Nikkei share average rose
to an eight-week high in active trade on Thursday, as commodity
stocks led a jump in buying interest after the U.S. Federal
Reserve stunned markets by deciding not to start tapering its
massive monetary stimulus just yet.

The Nikkei rose 1.8 percent to 14,766.18, the
highest close since late July. The Topix added 1.9
percent to 1,215.48.

Morning All.

FTSE100 opens sharply higher, with gold producers leading

GBP Retail Sales m/m -0.9% 0.4% 1.1%

In an upward market - why does the market dip every day at about 9.30, and again but less so at about 10.0a.m. or soon after - only to recover its trend

In a down ward market - it seems to be the reverse effect.

I wonder what causes that - any suggestions ?

GBP CBI Industrial Order Expectations 9 2 0

Raw materials producers drive FTSE 100 to triple-digit gains

Bob - A bit of profit-taking after overnight or early morning trades?

USD Existing Home Sales 5.48M 5.27M 5.39M

USD Philly Fed Manufacturing Index 22.3 10.2 9.3

USD CB Leading Index m/m 0.7% 0.6% 0.5%

Greystone - ? May be people arriving in offices and some kind of profit taking.
Have you noticed how buy / sell margins become narrower after half an hour or so from the 8.00 a.m. open, and I think they widen back out towards the close of day.
Has this got something to do with it ? Is it that more selling takes place when selling prices rise and / or buying prices fall when margins are being narrowed ?
I am not sure what the answer is yet, but it does seem to happen.

Has anyone else noticed this phenonomon. ( Blast - how do you spell phen ........ ? ).

FTSE100 ends the session with broad-based gains

Not like that :-)

Bob,

The spreads are wide in the mornings on some shares so that the market makers can catch and trip overnight stop settings to sell from unsuspecting share holders. As the morning/day goes on the spreads narrows to more reasonable choices... All in my humble of course.