Gold Trading

Google reported some strong figures last night with net income more than doubling QoQ. Lots of positives for the stock in a market that hasn’t seen a lot of good news from the earnings front. AMD dropped 6.5 percent in after-hours trading after releasing its Q2 report while Ford faced selling pressure throughout the session after another horrible quarter. Bill Ford, the Ford CEO, noted plenty of improvements internally but said that external threats are abundant. We agree, Mr. Ford - infact, we've said nothing but exactly that with regards to equities since early May.

Chipmakers are feeling the pain these days. Infineon's results released this morning also disappointed and the stock is indicated down more than 3 percent on the opening. SAP, after less-than-stellar report yesterday, is being downgraded by the big investment houses. The Bernanke-induced rally was short-lived and looks a lot like the move we saw after the June 29th FOMC.

We see Europe trading flat to lower ahead of the weekend, as Asia reacted as well, and feel the same for US.

Today's key earnings report:

EU: Infineon (0.04), Ericsson (0.35), Telenor (1.40)

US: Caterpillar (1.42), Eli Lilly (0.75), Halliburton (0.49), Schlumberger (0.63)

Corporate news:

PartyGaming: The world's largest Internet poker company will publish results of its annual general meeting. Shares have fallen 25 percent so far this month after a competitor and its executive officer was indicted in the U.S. this week, where a crackdown on online gaming is taking place. Shares fell 7 pence, or 7.4 percent, to 87.25 pence.

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TECHNICAL SIGNALS

Bullish:

Barclays (price crosses 21- and 50-day MA,

Williams %R)ABB (double MA crossover, 21- and 50-day)

Bearish:

HBOS (price crosses 21- and 200-day, Momentum)

Renault (price crosses 21-day MA, Momentum)