This Morning in London the FTSE-100 opened in buoyant mood, following on from a firm Wall Street, but sentiment was tempered somewhat after Woolworths (WLW.L) said it would need a sales uplift over the Christmas period to meet the lower end of market expectations for its full-year results. This depressed other retailers, with WH Smith (SMWH.L), Smith News (NWS.L), Debenhams (DEB.L) and HMV (HMV.L) all showing small losses. Marks & Spencer (MKS.L) has managed to claw back their losses to sit unchanged on the day. At 11:02 the FTSE-100 was up 24.3 at 6074.7.
You want to build a what!!??... WHERE!!??
A Chinese construction company has been fined around £32,000, for building a highway through the Great Wall. They have had the temerity to blast parts of the Great Wall of China in Inner Mongolia, to allow for a highway to be built. The company responsible, Hongji Landbridge, was warned not to go ahead with construction. But, according to government officials, it not only ignored the warnings.. they went on to demolish 3 nearby ancient villages as well. And as a result the company has been fined. New laws were passed in October to protect the wall, which only has one-third of its original structure remaining.
Now... is that very sporting?
Bradford City football fans have produced a book about the achievements of their rivals Leeds United and it consists of... 36 blank pages. The book is called, “Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About The Not So Massive Club That Was Super L666ds.” Bradford City fanzine City Gent is behind the book which is on sale at £1 per copy, its editor Mike Harrison said the predicament of relegation-threatened Leeds was one of the few things cheering up fans of struggling Bradford. He went on to say that the City Gent are at hand to provide a smile for City fans at their neighbours' expense.
BROKER RECOMMENDATIONS
ABN reiterates buy Interserve (IRV.L) (raising the price target to 420p from 408p) and has upgraded Game Group (GMG.L) to buy from add (raising the price target to 107p from 92p).
The broker says buy Low & Bonar (LWB.L) (raising the price target to 147p from 136p) and Hunting (HTG.L) (raising the price target to 600p from 550p) and has upgraded Beazley (BEZ.L) to buy from add (raising the price target to 135p from 120p).
ABN says buy Mecom (MEC.L) (raising the price target to 82p from 62p), FKI (FKI.L) (cutting the price target to 125p from 130p), Spectris (SXS.L) (raising the price target to 799p from 715p) and LogicaCMG (LOG.L).
The broker has upgraded Royal Dutch Shell (RDSA.L) to buy from hold.
Bridgewell reiterates underweight on Henderson (HGI.L) and has overweight on Morgan Crucible (MGCR.L).
The broker has upgraded Trafficmaster (TFC.L) to buy from overweight.
Citigroup has downgraded IG Group (IGG.L) to hold from buy and says buy GlaxoSmithKline (GSK.L).
Collins Stewart says buy Premier Foods (PFD.L) (350p target).
Credit Suisse reiterates outperform on Tesco (TSCO.L) and LogicaCMG (LOG.L) and has upgraded Compass (CPG.L) to neutral from underperform (raising the price target to 285p from 220p).
Deutsche reiterates buy WPP (WPP.L) and reiterates hold RHM (RHM.L) (raising the price target to 380p from 280p).
The broker says buy Mitchells & Butlers (MAB.L) (raising the price target to 820p from 740p) and says hold Old Mutual (OML.L) (cutting the price target to 174p from 186p).
Dresdner Kleinwort reiterates buy Anglo Irish Bank (ANGL.L).
Evolution says add Billing Services (BILL.L) (30p target) and Burren Energy (BUR.L) (950p target) and says buy GlaxoSmithKline (GSK.L) (1650p target).
The broker says add Prosperity (PMHL.L) (130p target) and buy Tesco (TSCO.L) (420p target) and Torex Retail (TRX.L) (70p target) add United Utilities (UU.L) (780p target).
Goldman reiterates neutral on EMI Group (EMI.L) and has neutral on BSkyB (BSY.L) (cutting the price target to 540p from 640p).
The broker has upgraded Vodafone (VOD.L) and RHM (RHM.L) to buy from neutral and reiterates neutral on Pennon (PNN.L) (raising the price target to 426p).
Goldman is neutral on Premier Foods (PFD.L) (raising the price target to 320p from 270p).
Investec says buys Nord Anglia Education (NAE.L) and Clinphone (CNP.L).
KBC Peel Hunt says buy Luminar (LMR.L), Carclo (CAR.L) and Allergy Therapeutics (AGY.L) and reduce Woolworths (WLW.L).
The broker says add Greene King (GNK.L).
Lehman reiterates overweight on BT (BT.L) (310p target) and has overweight on GlaxoSmithKline (GSK.L).
The broker reiterates overweight on Premier Foods (PFD.L) (raising the price target to 360p from 300p).
Merrill Lynch reiterates neutral on GlaxoSmithKline (GSK.L).
Morgan Stanley reiterates equal-weight on GlaxoSmithKline (GSK.L) and has overweight on Reuters (RTR.L) (475p target, raising estimates).
The broker has underweight on Misys (MSY.L).
Panmure Gordon has downgraded Christian Salvesen (SVC.L) to sell from hold and says buy Luminar (LMR.L) (raising the price target to 800p from 750p), Greene King (GNK.L), WPP (WPP.L) (775p target) and Tesco (TSCO.L).
The broker has downgraded Woolworths (WLW.L) to sell from hold and upgraded Premier Foods (PFD.L) to buy from hold.
Seymour Pierce reiterates underweight on the Retailers and has outperform on Tesco (TSCO.L) and says sell Woolworths (WLW.L).
UBS has upgraded Premier Foods (PFD.L) to buy from neutral and downgraded IG Group (IGG.L) to neutral from buy.
The broker reiterates buy BP (BP.L) and says buy LogicaCMG (LOG.L), BAT (BATS.L), British Airways (BAY.L), Aegis (AGS.L) and WPP Group (WPP.L).
UBS is neutral on Alliance Boots (AB.L) and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK.L).
NEWS ROUND-UP
Last Night in New York shares closed higher as positive momentum from a number of mergers, including a mega deal within the banking sector, which outweighed bad news for Pfizer. The Bank of New York is to acquire Mellon Financial Corporation to create a $43-billion giant, which will be ranked as the world's largest custodian of financial assets. This news offset bad news for Pfizer, which fell 11%, on news that it had halted development of a once-promising cholesterol drug, due to safety concerns. The Dow closed up 89.72-points at 12283.85 (having been up over 100-points during the day), the Nasdaq added 35.18-points to 2448.39 (its biggest daily rise in nearly a month), while the S&P put on 12.41-points to 1409.12 (a 6-year high).
On this day in:-
1993 - American astronauts from the Shuttle Endeavour left their spacecraft to begin work on repairing the Hubble space telescope 367-miles above the surface of Earth.
1977 - Five Arab nations broke diplomatic links with Egypt, hostile to President Anwar Sadat's peace initiative with Israel.
1962 - The United States and Soviet Union agreed to co-operate in peaceful uses of outer space.
1958 - The inauguration of Great Britain's STD telephone service in Bristol.
1958 - Prime Minister Harold MacMillan opened Great Britain's first motorway.
1956 - Great British and French forces began to withdraw from Egypt at the end of the Suez War.
1956 - Approval was given for British Togoland and Ghana to become a single country.
1945 - The so-called Bermuda Triangle in the Atlantic Ocean claimed more victims, as 5 US Navy bombers from Fort Lauderdale in Florida disappeared while flying over the area. No trace was ever found of the planes or the pilots.
1944 - World War II: Allied forces captured Ravenna in Italy.
1936 - The Soviet Union adopted a new Constitution, under one Supreme Council.
1934 - There were reports from Russia of the executions of 66 people found guilty of plotting against the Government of Joseph Stalin.
1933 - After 13-years, the era of Prohibition in America came to an end. The 21st Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified, bringing an end to the prohibition of alcohol in America. In early 1919, the 18th Amendment banned the manufacture, sale, and transportation of intoxicating liquors within the United States. To enforce the 18th Amendment, the U.S. Congress passed the Volstead Act, which authorised the Treasury Department to establish its own prohibition unit. In its first 6-months, the unit destroyed thousands of illicit stills run by bootleggers. However, federal agents and police did little more than slow the flow of booze, and organised crime flourished in America. Prohibition, ineffective in enforcing sobriety, lost popular support and in early 1933 Congress proposed the 21st Amendment to repeal the 18th. On 5th December 1933, Prohibition officially ended when Utah became the 36th state to ratify the amendment, giving it the requisite three-fourths majority of state approval.
1913 - Great Britain forbade the selling of arms to Ireland.
1904 - Russo-Japanese War: The Russian fleet was destroyed by the Japanese at Port Arthur.
1872 - An American ship, the Marie Celeste, was found drifting in the Atlantic. There was no sign of any of the crew members and no clues why they should have deserted the ship.
1863 - The rules of Association Football were published.
1812 - Napoleon Bonaparte deserted his troops retreating from Russia and travelled back to Paris alone.
1797 - Napoleon Bonaparte arrived in Paris to take command of the French forces planning the invasion of Great Britain.
1792 - In Revolutionary France, the start of the trial of King Louis XVI.
1766 - James Christie, who founded the world famous auctioneers, held his first sale in London.
1697 - The first Sunday service was held in the new St Paul's Cathedral, built in London.
1560 - Charles IX became King of France on the death of Francis II.
