Good morning traders!

In the US last night, the Dow fell 59 points to 15,133, the Nasdaq lost 3 points at
3,815 and the S&P500 dropped a point at 1,694.

In Asia today, the Nikkei was recently down 7 points at 14,163 and the Hang Seng
ahead 223 points at 23,207.

WTI crude oil traded at $104.10 a barrel and Brent crude at $109.19.

Gold settled at $1,320 an ounce.

Good hunting!

G.

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Global Markets

Asian Markets News

European Factors to Watch-Shares to open steady, eyes on U.S. shutdown

Thu Oct 3, 2013 6:32am BST
LONDON, Oct 3 (Reuters) - European shares headed for a steady open on
Thursday, with uncertainty over the impact of a prolonged U.S. government
shutdown offset by strong economic data from China.

Markets were cautious given the likely impact of the shutdown on talks to
raise the U.S. debt ceiling by mid-October, with analysts saying failure to do
this would push the world's biggest economy into default and hurt the pace of
economic recovery.

But an upbeat survey on China's huge services sector after a poor report on
manufacturing earlier in the week and expectations that some recent
disappointing economic numbers would force the U.S. Federal Reserve to keep its
policies loose for longer were seen underpinning the market.

Capital Spreads predicted Britain's FTSE 100 to open 16 points
higher, or 0.25 percent, Germany's DAX to gain 2 points, or 0.02
percent, and France's CAC 40 to fall 2 points, or 0.05 percent.

GBP Halifax HPI m/m 0.3% 0.6% 0.4%

Spanish Services PMI 49.0 50.9 50.4

Italian Services PMI 52.7 49.3 48.8

FTSE100 modestly higher in early deals as easyJet soars

GBP Services PMI 60.3 60.4 60.5

EUR Spanish 10-y Bond Auction 4.27|2.0 4.50|2.0

EUR French 10-y Bond Auction 2.37|1.9 2.57|1.9

EUR Retail Sales m/m 0.7% 0.3% 0.5%

FTSE100 modestly higher at midday with Aviva the leader

Is the FTSE ready to go higher from here?

could gain another 200 points

USD Unemployment Claims 308K 315K 307K

End-of-day Market Overview