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Good Morning ShareCrazies
This Morning in London major shares were modestly higher in opening deals, with retailers recovering some ground. In early trade, Carphone Warehouse (CPW) was up 16p at 348p. Miners were also higher, notably Xstrata (XTA) up 60p at 3,635p. Cairn Energy (CNE) was down 47p at 2,900p, after announcing this morning that it plans to plug and abandon the Magnama-1 exploration well in block 16, offshore Bangladesh as the well's sands in the deepest section drilled were not gas charged. At 9:10 the FTSE-100 was up 38.9 points at 6,518.3 with the FTSE-250 up 1 point at 10,541.9.
BROKER RECOMMENDATIONS
Credit Suisse has underperform on Pearson (PSON) and has market weight on the pharmaceutical’s.
Daniel Stewart says buy Tristel (TSTL).
Goldman has upgraded DSG (DSGI) to neutral from sell (cutting the price target 75p from 88p) and says buy CRH (CRH) (raising the price target €28 from €26.72) and Next (NXT) (cutting estimates).
Investec says sell DSG (DSGI) (cutting the price target to 72p from 90p).
KBC says hold Cairn Energy (CNE) and buy Dragon Oil (DGO) (raising estimates) and Venture Production (VPC).
Merrill has removed Admiral (ADM) and Prudential (PRU) from its ‘Most Preferred’ List.
Sanford Bernstein has market perform on BHP Billiton (BLT) and Anglo American (AAL).
Seymour Pierce says buy ATH Resources (ATH), Energybuild (EBG), UK Coal (UKC) and Michael Page (MPI).
SG Securities says sell Centrica (CNA) and DSG International (DSGI) (cutting the price target to 74p from 99p).
UBS is neutral Moneysupermarket.com (MONY) (cutting the price target 155p from 235p), Johnson Service (JSG) (cutting target 42p from 75p) and Sainsbury (SBRY) and says buy British Airways (BAY).
NEWS ROUND-UP
Last Night in New York stocks tallied a mixed finish after switching gears on earlier gains in tentative trade after auto makers reported soft December sales and investors fretted over rising energy costs and Friday's payrolls report. Up the bulk of the session, the Dow Jones rose 12.8 points to end at 13,056.7, with 20 of its 30 components settling with gains. Broader indexes yielded mixed results. The S&P held steady to close at 1,447.16, while the technology-laden Nasdaq fell 6.95 points to 2,602.68.
On this day in:-
2000 - Catherine Hartley and Fiona Thornewill became the first Great British women to reach the South Pole, crossing 680 miles of Antartica where temperatures are often as low as minus 48 degrees Centigrade.
1999 - For the first time since Charlemagne's reign in the 9th-century, Europe was united with a common currency, when the €uro debuted as a financial unit in corporate and investment markets. Eleven European Union nations, representing 290-million people, launched the currency with hopes of increasing European integration and economic growth. Closing at a robust 1.17 U.S. dollars on its first day, the €uro promised to give the dollar a run for its money in the new global economy. This initial optimism, however, soon petered out as the €uro begins a long, steady decline, dropping below dollar parity in December 1999, and losing another 20% of its value in 2000. Despite these setbacks, hard €uro currency - decorated with architectural images, symbols of European unity, and member-state motifs - were scheduled to hit the streets on 1st January 2002, permanently replacing the mark, markka, franc, lira, peseta, florin, Irish pound, Austrian schilling, and escudo by July of that year.
1999 - Chancellor Gordon Brown's press advisor Charles Whelan resigned in the wake of the Mandelson and Robinson loan affair.
1998 - Loyalist prisoners in Maze Prison, Northern Ireland, voted to withdraw support for the Ulster Peace Process. They claimed that too many concessions had been made to Republicans.
1987 - Spanish Guitar legend Andres Segovia embarked on his final tour of America. Widely credited with popularising the instrument, Segovia died 4-months later in Madrid aged 94.
1974 - American President Richard Nixon refused to hand over tape recordings and documents subpoenaed by the Senate Watergate Committee.
1972 - Rose Heilbron became the first woman to be appointed a judge at the Old Bailey Court in London.
1967 - Donald Campbell died attempting to break the world water speed record on Coniston Water in the Lake District.
1958 - Sir Edmund Hilary successfully led the first overland expedition to the South Pole since Captain Robert F. Scott's in 1912.
1951 - Residents of the South Korean capital, Seoul, were warned of imminent invasion by North Korean and Chinese Communist forces.
1936 - Billboard Magazine in America published the first popular music chart, with rankings based on national sales figures.
1929 - Australian cricketer Don Bradman made his first Test Match century playing for Australia against England in Melbourne.
1885 - The first successful appendix operation was performed by Dr William West Grant in Iowa, USA.
1884 - In London, the Socialist group the Fabian Society was launched.
1642 - Under the orders of King Charles I, armed soldiers entered Parliament. The English Civil War started shortly afterwards.
46BC - Titus Labienus defeats Julius Caesar in the Battle of Ruspina.
WEEKLY DIARY
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Compiled in association with HB PLC and WH Ireland Ltd
