Good morning traders!

US stocks ended higher last night. Positive corporate news helped temper concern over a new storm threat to the Gulf of Mexico.

The Dow closed up 60.76 points at 10,348. The Nasdaq Composite ended up 5.47 points at 2,070. The S&P500 rose 3.53 points to 1,190.

In Asia, the Hang Seng ended the morning session up 70.33 points at 14,611.68, with the Nikkei closing the morning down 13.39 points at 13,386.90.

Early broker notes:

ROYAL DUTCH SHELL UPGRADED TO 'OUTPERFORM' VS 'IN-LINE' AT GOLDMAN
BURBERRY ADDED TO MERRILL LYNCH EUROPE 1 LIST
NORTHGATE CUT TO 'HOLD' VS 'BUY' AT ABN AMRO
ICI UPGRADED TO 'BUY' VS 'HOLD' AT DKW
AB PORTS UPGRADED TO 'BUY' VS 'HOLD' AT DKW
GROUP 4 SECURICOR UPGRADED TO 'BUY' VS 'HOLD' AT DKW
NEXT UPGRADED TO 'EQUAL-WEIGHT' VS 'UNDERWEIGHT' AT MORGAN STANLEY

Happy trading!

G.

Morning all.

Good Morning all

End of day market summary