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MARKET COMMENT for TUESDAY 8TH JANUARY 2008

HEADLINES

Good Morning ShareCrazies

This Morning in London blue-chip stocks opened higher, with miners strong on higher commodity prices. Housebuilder Persimmon (PSN), weak in recent days, gained 2p to 687p, and Taylor Wimpey (TW.) rose 1.7p to 181.5p after the Halifax said house prices increased by 1.3% in December following three successive monthly falls. At 9:20 the FTSE-100 was up 36.8 points at 6,372.5. Yesterday, the index fell 12.8 to close at 6,335.7. In early deals this morning the FTSE-250 was 30.9 points higher at 10,124.0.

BROKER RECOMMENDATIONS

Bear Sterns reiterates outperform on Shire (SHP) and has outperform on BT (BT.A) (new 2008 price target of 406p).

Citigroup has downgraded Keller Group (KLR) to hold from buy.

Credit Suisse has reviewed the European Telecoms and has downgraded its sector stance to market-weight from overweight.
The broker has downgraded Liberty International (LII) to underperform from neutral.

Deutsche has reviewed the IT & Services Sector and reiterates hold LogicaCMG (LOG) (cutting the price target to 145p from 170p and reducing estimates), the broker says hold Misys (MSY) and buy Sage (SGE).
The broker has issued a review of the UK Pub Stocks, in which it reiterates buy Enterprise Inns (ETI) and says hold Mitchells & Butlers (MAB), Marstons (MARS) (cutting the price target to 400p from 430p) and JD Wetherspoon (JDW), with buy recommendations on Greene King (GNK), Punch Taverns (PUB) and Whitbread (WTB).

Merrill has downgraded Petrofac (PFC) to neutral from buy.

UBS has downgraded Johnston Press (JPR) to sell from neutral and Yell (YELL) to sell from neutral (cutting the price target to 330p from 430p).

NEWS ROUND-UP

Last Night in New York stocks wobbled, with the Nasdaq extending losses into a seventh session, as equities trade fluctuated between worries about the economy and buyers swooping in to pick up shares in the wake of Friday's steep price drop. Up and down in a 150-point trading range, the Dow Jones finished 27.3 points ahead at 12,827.5. The S&P climbed 4.55 points to 1,416.18, while the Nasdaq, which has lost ground for the past six sessions, fell 5.19 points to 2,499.46.

On this day in:-
2004 - The largest passenger ship ever built, RMS Queen Mary 2, was named by Queen Elizabeth II.
2001 - The High Court ruled that the identities of the two boys who murdered toddler James Bulger in 1993 were to be permanently kept secret.
1994 - Russian Cosmonaut Valerie Polyakov left on Soyuz TM-18 for the Mir space station. Polyakov stayed on Mir until 22nd March 1995 - a record 437 days in space.
1989 - A British Midland 737 crashed into an embankment alongside the M1 motorway near Kegworth, killing 47-people.
1961 - A national referendum in France voted in favour of granting independence to Algeria.
1959 - French leader Charles de Gaulle was inaugurated at the Elysée Palace, as the first President of the new Fifth Republic.
1921 - David Lloyd George becomes the first Great British Prime Minister to occupy a country mansion in Buckinghamshire. The grace and favour house was presented to the nation as a gift by The Lord Lee of Fareham (Chequers).
1918 - President Woodrow Wilson introduced his 'Fourteen Points', through which he hoped to establish lasting peace at the end of the Great War. Amongst others, these included the right to national self-determination and the establishment of a post war world body to resolve future conflict.
1912 - The South African Native National Congress was founded. It later changed its name to the African National Congress.
1889 - Dr Herman Hollerith receives the first U.S. patent for a tabulating machine. Hollerith’s company eventually becomes IBM.
1877 - Crazy Horse and his warriors fought their last battle with the United States Cavalry at Montana.
1815 - U.S. General Andrew Jackson achieved the greatest American victory of the war at the Battle of New Orleans - 2-weeks after the official end of the war of 1812, and the signing of the Treaty of Ghent.
1790 - George Washington delivered the first State of the Union Address, in New York City.
1746 - Bonnie Prince Charlie and Jacobite Highland forces occupied Stirling. Such early successes would prove short-lived for the pretender to the throne.
1297 - François Grimaldi captured the fortress protecting the famous Rock of Monaco.
871 - At the Battle of Ashdown, Alfred the Great led the West Saxon armies of his brother, King Ethelred, to victory against the invading Danes.

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