Morning Call by Traders University

The FTSE 100 ended slightly higher on Friday, rounding off a good week for the leading share index closing at 3842. Insurers continued their strong performance from previous days. They were led by Legal & General and Prudential. The Pru is being helped by stories that it’s new chief executive’s first job could be to break the life group up. HSBC and Barclays were among the worst performers after the former went ex-rights, and the latter saw Morgan Stanley cut its target price to 90p from 145p on fears the bank will need to raise capital soon. The Dow Jones fell 122 points to 7,278 after starting Friday mixed, stocks veered lower in the afternoon as financial stocks fell and investors collected profits from the advance that saw the Dow rise 14 percent over seven trading days. One reason for the market’s pause after such a big surge was that it ran out of upbeat economic and corporate news the past two days. Forex News: The EUR/USD consolidated gains on Friday following eight straight daily gains. The Pound has broken the 1.4450 resistance level on a bullish reaction after hitting 1.4395, and advances towards 1.4595 intra−day high. Existing home sales in the U.S high news today at 2pm expected to be slightly better than previous figures.