Good morning traders!

US stocks ended lower last night as profit warnings from Lexmark and Clorox and Federal Reserve concern over inflation in the economy erased the positive impact of a fall in oil prices.

The Dow fell 94.37 points to 10,441.11 with the Nasdaq Composite down 16.07 points at 2,139.36 and the S&P500 12.23 points lower at 1,214.47.

In Asia today, following Wall Street's lead, the Hang Seng Index closed the morning down 172.27 points at 15,209.94, while the Nikkei was down 22.41 points at 13,716.43 at the break.

Oil prices were steady in Asian trading hours. New York's main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in November, was up 3 cents at $63.93 a barrel from its close of $63.90 in the US overnight.

Early broker notes:-

*PENNON CUT TO 'UNDERWEIGHT' VS 'NEUTRAL' AT JP MORGAN
*BP DOWNGRADED TO 'HOLD' VS 'BUY' AT CITIGROUP
*BODY SHOP CUT TO 'HOLD' VS 'BUY' AT ABN AMRO
*INTERCONTINENTAL HOTELS UPGRADED TO 'BUY' VS 'NEUTRAL' AT UBS
*PARTYGAMING DOWNGRADED TO 'NEUTRAL' FROM 'BUY' BY UBS

Happy trading!

G.

Morning punters!

AKR very upbeat - also set up financing facility

EPD raising money too

AKT marketing heart attack kit

CTF waffling on - looks suspiciously P/W to me

BES trading update - that's a lot of Voddy!

IME look to be in totally the wrong market - Bruno Brookes is the CEO - stone-cold SHORT? LOL

CLY settle with former CEO
CLY also selling two interests

CUC in "Ipods for cars" deal with Renault ;-))

TAN to supply DCG with vehicles

ARA launch in Germany - am I reading that right? LOL!

TFC in an interesting sideline - is this the future of insurance?

LAN listed in July - with retailing as it is, I'll bet they're glad they ain't trying now. ;-)

WUN hurricane losses, etc

Have a nice day!
;-)

Just found this on DJ

05/10 07:28 - Retail Decisions In Acquisition Talks, Arranging Funding

Edited Press Release


LONDON (Dow Jones)--Retail Decisions PLC, a fuel card operator, said Wednesday that it is in discussions that may lead to the acquisition of a business whose key activities are complementary to those of ReD.

Details of the acquisition and funding are being finalised, but it is anticipated that the transaction would be funded partly through issuing new equity to be raised from existing and new shareholders, Retail Decisions said in response to market speculation.

A further announcement will be made as soon as possible.

End of day market summary