RAMSEY CROOKALL

13th July

Morning Report

The FTSE 100 is up 0.30%. June jobless claims came in at 24,500, vs expectations of 15,000. This is the biggest rise since May '09. However average earnings have increased. Meanwhile, miners lead the upside following better-than-expected economic data from China, the world's largest industrial metals consumer. On the downside, Marks & Spencer falls 2.7% following a cautious outlook in its update. Next on the economic agenda is the US import price index later this afternoon.

Iconic British luxury brand Burberry jumped higher early on after underlying sales soared by 34% in the first quarter, driven largely by strong retail growth in China.

Mining titan Xstrata was in demand after taking full control of the Pallas Green zinc project in Ireland, buying out the 23.6% interest held by its joint venture partner, Minco, for $19.4m. Sector peers Fresnillo, Antofagasta Randgold, Lonmin, ENRC, Kazakhmys, BHP Billiton and Anglo American are also firmer, tracking metals prices higher.

Marks & Spencer is one of  the worst performers despite seeing sales (excluding VAT) rise by 3.2% in the 13 weeks to 2 July, compared with the year before. Like-for-like (lfl) sales in the UK were flat on the general merchandise sales side, in line with the prediction made by broker Matrix Group, while food sales grew 3.3% on a lfl basis yoy, ahead of Matrix's forecast of 3.0% growth.

THE FTSE 100 at 10:30                   Up                    23           @     5892

THE DOW JONES closed                    Down                  58           @    12446                                NASDAQ COMP closed                      Down                  20           @    2781                                  Exchange Rates GBP – USD           1.5959 GBP - EURO         1.1329