Finnish SEC seems to be hinting that the outlook statements of Nokia and many other companies are insufficient. Nokia touted their TD-SCDMA readiness in China.

DAX +0.31%; Nokia -0.88%; RTS is up; EURUSD 1.2096 (unchanged).

Traders buy longs on UPM Kymmene (forestries) and Finnair (aircarrier). UPM Kymmene announced that they have successfully increased the price of newspaper paper. Finnair increases yet again routes to Asia.

Traders are less interested in their losing bets on DAX shorts than yesterday.

-- Let your prophets run and sell the suckers!

Your view of energy I'm not quite sure about. In the last three years you've had energy stocks move in tandem with the market and the tranports also moving to new highs. If markets are a reflection of earnings, one would have to conclude that generally there is plenty to go around for everybody. Certainly there are pockets of negative correlation where oils have moved inversely to the other sectors, but they haven't lasted very long.

I still see this market in a cyclical rally. The oils and commodities are just part of it. The story in the far east may be the new secular story, but it will only be seen to be so if it survives a significant rate rise.

I see all this as of a piece. To me the question is what changes it and where does the money go?

That is where the alpha will be. Maybe it's in shampoo.

Hmmph, the problem with Google Finance is that it offers no more content than others:

http://finance.google.com/finance?mfid=6269110 (hint: use the Search)

OK, it provides a bunch of links to other content providers.

I still think that Yahoo is the best because it provides historical quotes. They had a proper options analyzer too, but they have withdrawn it and replaced with a simple one.

-- Let your prophets run and sell the suckers!

whether they are reputable or can anyone confirm this story? this would be first case of avian flu in americas i believe... thnx for any and all info...

http://www.radiolivre.org/node/2116

First Mexican bird flu case reported in Nogales
Enviado por Anônimo em Qua, 03/22/2006 - 17:53. Rádio Livre

Ciudad de Mexico - México confirmed today its first case of avian flu in a duck found dead in the heart of Nogales, near the US border.

Mexican officials said it was not yet clear if the wild bird, found on Monday, was infected with the H5N1 strain of the virus which can infect humans.

“We have a first case of bird flu. It’s H5,” Federal Veterinary Office spokeswoman Margarita Cruz said.

A sample has been sent to a European reference laboratory in Britain to test for the H5N1 strain and results are expected by the end of the week, she said.

The country this month ordered all poultry be kept indoors for an indefinite period to lessen the risk from the fast-spreading H5N1 virus that has killed millions of birds.

It remains difficult for humans to catch but the strain has killed more than 90 people worldwide since late 2003.

So far most human victims of the virus have had direct or indirect contact with infected birds but there are fears the virus will mutate into a strain easily passed among people, causing a pandemic in which millions could die.

Little human risk:

The Mexican Federal Veterinary Office said that in addition to the Nogales case.

Radio Libre

----

This appears to be coming from a Mexican radio station … But so what … lots of birds in Canada have flu—it’s just that they don’t have the strain that causes death. A link between bird flu and people hasn’t been established in North America.

From the Financial Times:

By Pan Kwan Yuk in New York

Published: March 22 2006 13:56 | Last updated: March 22 2006 21:43

A rapacious appetite for banking and pharmaceutical stocks helped Wall Street break out of its two-day slump on Wednesday, but gains on the Nasdaq were pared by weaknesses in technology stocks.

Industrial blue chips led the Dow Jones Industrial Average higher, with investors snapping up shares in heavy-equipment maker Caterpillar and Honeywell as fears about the impact of interest-rate increases on the economy subsided. Caterpillar rose 2.5 per cent to $76.21 and Honeywell gained 0.9 per cent to $42.66.

The gains took the Dow 0.7 per cent higher at 11,317.43, while the broader S&P 500, buoyed by gains in energy stock climbed 0.6 per cent to 1,305.04. The Nasdaq Composite turned around earlier losses to trade 0.4 per cent higher at 2,303.35.

Interest-rate sensitive stocks such as financials and homebuilders rose. Morgan Stanley, which topped analyst expectations with its 17 per cent increase in first-quarter profit, jumped 2.5 per cent to $61.94, while JPMorgan added 1.9 per cent to $41.99.

Pharmaceutical stocks also moved broadly higher after drugmaker Bristol-Myers Squibb settled a key patent dispute with Canadian generic drugmaker Apotex.

The deal, which would allow Bristol to retain patent protection on its blockbuster Plavix blood thinning treatment until 2011, prompted rating upgrades from UBS, Merrill Lynch, Citigroup and JPMorgan.

Bristol shares shot up 10.6 per cent to $25.24, while Eli Lilly ended the session 2.1 per cent higher at $58.49.

Overall, the pharmaceutical and biotechnology index rose 1.2 per cent to become the second-best performing industry group on the S&P.

By contrast, technology stocks were under pressure, with Microsoft sliding 2.1 per cent to $27.15 after it announced late on Tuesday that the finished consumer version of its Vista operating system would not be available until next year.

Although the latest hold-up represents only a small setback after two years of delays, the move dealt a potentially damaging blow to sales of PC makers during the crucial holiday shopping season.

Shares in Hewlett-Packard slid 0.5 per cent to $33.36 while Gateway slumped 2.8 per cent to $2.36. Apple Computer, which does not use the Windows operating system, also got caught in the the falling trend, easing 0.2 per cent to $61.67 after having risen by as much as 1.5 per cent earlier in the day.

Losses on the Nasdaq were pared by Chaparral Steel, which surged 16.5 per cent to $57.50 following a strong quarterly earnings report. The robust figures set off a buying spree on metal makers. US Steel jumped 4.4 per cent to $59.86 while Alcoa gained 0.8 per cent to $29.36.

On the earnings front, Nike and FedEx both exceeded analysts’ expectations with their earnings. Nike rose 2.2 per cent to $86.82 while FedEx gained 1.1 per cnet to $114.44.

http://news.ft.com/cms/s/c1a026c8-b9aa-11da-9d02-0000779e2340.html

From the Financial Times:

By Jennifer Hughes in New York and David Turner in Tokyo

Published: March 22 2006 17:31 | Last updated: March 22 2006 21:13

European and US government bonds were generally higher and yields lower on Wednesday, but the move could be attributed to local factors in each market.

US Treasuries appeared to be in curve flattening mode.

Trading volumes eased after a busy session on Tuesday as investors waited for news to provide fresh direction.

Shorter-dated yields rose ahead of next week’s expected interest rate rise. Longer-dated yields dropped further however on talk that momentum traders were putting on new curve flattening trades that involve buying the bonds.

By late trade in New York, yields on two-year notes were up 0.4 basis points at 4.747 per cent and 10-year yields were down 2bp at 4.705 per cent.

UK gilts suffered a turbulent Budget day. Ten- and 30-year paper first fell on news that the proportion of long-dated bonds would rise, but then rallied when the total issuance forecast was lower than expected.

James Knightley, economist at ING Financial Markets, said however that the more significant news might prove to have been the announcement that the dovish Stephen Nickell would be replaced in May by David Blanchflower on the Bank of England’s monetary policy committee.

“Blanchflower specialises in labour markets, which could be of major significance in coming months given comments from other BoE officials stating that they remain concerned about spare capacity as well as wage pressures,” he added.

Ten-year yields peaked at 4.397 per cent but were at 4.304 per cent, down 3bp, late in London. Thirty-year yields dropped 4.9bp to 4.012 per cent, having reached 4.127 per cent earlier.

Eurozone bonds initially fell on hawkish comments from a member of the European Central Bank’s governing council.

But prices later rallied following a weak Belgian confidence indicator which some economists said could presage a soft sentiment report next week from the more influential German Ifo Institute.

The 10-year Bund yield was down 1.9bp at 3.646 per cent.

Japanese government bonds fell and yields reached new highs as expectations continued to grow for actual interest rate rises from the Bank of Japan this year.

Two-year yields rose 2.5bp to a fresh five-year closing high of 0.575 per cent but the 10-year lost 0.5bp to close at 1.725 per cent.

http://news.ft.com/cms/s/54376a74-b9c8-11da-9d02-0000779e2340.html

I guess they are more radioactive instead.

Mexican official denies rumor of bird flu on border with U.S.

ASSOCIATED PRESS
11:27 a.m. March 23, 2006

MEXICO CITY – Mexico's Agriculture Department on Thursday denied rumors that a case of high-pathogenic avian flu had been found in a town on the U.S. border.
“Mexico is totally free of bird flu,” Jose Angel del Valle, the department's head of animal health, said in a telephone interview.

A supposed news item posted on the Web site radiolivre.org on Wednesday said there had been a case of H5 bird flu in a duck found dead in the town of Nogales, on the U.S. border.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture said earlier Thursday that the report was a complete hoax, but the rumor affected Chicago Board of Trade grain prices overnight Wednesday.

Last year, Mexico reported several isolated cases of low-pathogenic bird flu, which doesn't affect humans. The most recent case was in the southern state of Chiapas, near the Guatemalan border.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/mexico/20060323-1127-mexico-birdflu.html