Man Group plunged after reporting investors put $600 million into funds, raising the assets to $71.7 billion. The company, however, reported that assets under management rose 4.5% in the last quarter of 2007.

U.K. brewer Scottish & Newcastle said that it is considering to initiating talks with bidders Heineken NV and Carlsberg A/S if bids top 800 pence per share.

The company has rejected a 7.5 billion pounds or 780 pence per share takeover bid from the two companies. The stock closed up 0.76%.

Signet reported today that revenue at stores open at least one year fell 6.8% in the eight weeks ending December as sales in the U.S. and Britain plummeted. The company forecasted pretax profit for fiscal 2008 will be between $330 million and $340 million.



12:30PM New York – U.S. stocks reversed morning losses.

Dow Jones Industrial Average traded up 95.51 to 12,830.81, Nasdaq rose 7.71 to 2,482,75, and S&P 500 rose 5.78 to 1,414.24.

The European Central Bank, ECB, left the rates unchanged at 4% and signaled that it is prepared to hike rates if necessary. The euro rallied almost one cent against dollar after the rate decision.

The Bank of England left its rate unchanged at 5.5% lifting pound against euro and dollar. The UK government bond yield rose to 4.39%. Inflation in the UK has been running above the central bank target on rising food and energy costs.

Initial jobless claims decreased for the week ending on January 5. The claims declined by 15,000 to 322,000 according to the U.S. Labor Department.

Intel declined after the New York Attorney General opened anti-trust investigation to see if Intel coerced customers to prevent from buying Advanced Micro Devices chip products.

Discounters and wholesaler reported better same store sales data then most retailers as consumers searched for discount amidst rising energy costs.

Wal-Mart (WMT: chart) same store sales increased 2.4% in December but at Target fell 5%. Apparel retailer faced the worst declines on the consumer curtailing discretionary spending. Chico’s sales fell 13.7%, at J C Penney declined 7.5%, at Limited Brands declined 8%, and at Macy’s fell 9%.

Capital One Financial (COF: chart) lowered its annual earnings estimate for the year 007 to $3.97 from $5 per share on loan losses. The company booked a legal reserve of $80 million in legal costs and $1.9 billion in loan-loss provisions.

The company expects diluted earnings from continuing operations of approximately $0.85 per share for the fourth quarter of 2007 and approximately $6.55 per share for full year 2007.

Earnings from continuing operations excludes the loss from discontinued operations related to the shutdown of GreenPoint Mortgage, announced in August 2007, of approximately $0.25 per share for the fourth quarter of 2007 and approximately $2.58 per share for full year 2007.

The reduction in expected earnings per share was driven primarily by increased provision expense and additional legal reserves established in the fourth quarter.

The fourth quarter 2007 provision for loan losses was approximately $1.9 billion. This is comprised of approximately $1.3 billion in charge-offs and an allowance build of about $650 million.

The company recorded a pre-tax charge in the fourth quarter of approximately $80 million for liabilities in connection with the Visa antitrust lawsuit settlement with American Express that was disclosed on November 9, 2007.