Hello traders!

US stocks closed off their highs tonight after the major averages switched course several times during a session dominated by mercurial crude futures prices and conflicting assessments of the damage to the oil industry done by Hurricane Rita.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up 24.04 points at 10,443.63. The S&P500 closed up 0.34 points at 1,215.63 and the Nasdaq Composite rose 4.62 points to 2,121.46.

See you in the morning with updates........

G.

Good morning traders!

In Asia, the Hang Seng ended the morning down 25.40 points at 15,248.91, with the Nikkei recently trading down 86.42 points at 13,306.71.

Oil prices crept up again in Asian trade, New York's main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in November was up five cents at $65.87 a barrel after closing at $65.82 in the US yesterday.

Off to find some UK news.......

Happy trading!

G.

MARKET EXPECTATIONS

Akers Biosciences. Baird Equities forecasts six months to June pretax loss 100,000 stg vs loss 1.8 mln

Game Group. Evolution Securities forecasts six months to July pretax loss 5.0 mln stg vs loss 3.1 mln

Reed Health Group. Baird Equities forecasts year to June pretax profit 1.3 mln stg vs 4.5 mln; interim dividend 1.5 pence vs 2.4

Synairgen. Baird Equities forecasts year to June pretax loss 1.8 mln stg vs loss 2.0 mln

Television Corporation. Baird Equities forecasts six months to June pretax profit 2.2 mln stg vs 700,000 stg; no dividend expected

Shares in BP and Royal Dutch Shell were upgraded to 'overweight' from 'neutral' at JP Morgan after the broker adjusted estimates for the European oil sector to reflect new commodity price forecasts.

End of day market summary