Equities Update

In US The First day in august have resulted in declines for the Dow in 13 of the last 20 years and the same picture happened y/d. All sectors was hurt yesterday as heightened inflation fears provided an excuse to question the possibility of a pause at the next FOMC meeting one week from today.

The European stock markets will start the day neutral with a negative bias, with a close eye on the earnings reports out today from a number of big names including: Arcelor, BASF, BMW, BNP Paribas, Cadbury Schweppes, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Boerse and Groupe Danone, Lafarge, Novo Nordisk, Sanofi-Aventis.

Earning as we see them – even that the majority so far have come out better than expected - are not enough to add strength to this market – as we still have the macroeconomic problems with higher than expected inflation and the geopolitical problems in the middle east.