4:15PM Ford Declines 11%, Adobe gains 10% and averages close up.

-Yield on 10-year bond closed at 4.8% and 30-year bond closed at 4.91%.

-Crude oil edged 11 cents higher to close at $63.33 per barrel and natural gas closed up 7 cents to $4.96 mBTU.

-Gold closed lower $2.90 to close at $577.50, silver edged 7.5 cents lower to $10.87 and copper traded 6 cents lower to close at $3.3115.

-Asian Markets closed higher but Japan closed down 0.5%, Thailand traded 0.2% lower and Australia edged lower 0.63%. Philippines and Taiwan led the region with 1.2% rise and India, Indonesia and Hong Kong gained 0.3%.

-European Markets closed higher led by 0.7% rise in the Netherlands, 0.6% in Switzerland and 0.5% rise in Germany and Spain. France edged 0.4% higher and UK was unchanged.

-Latin Markets closed near unchanged levels led by a 1.2% rise in Mexico, 0.4% rise in Chile and 0.04% gain in Brazil. Argentina closed 0.12% lower. Canada closed 0.04% higher on insurance and banking stocks.

2:30PM Ford announces deep cuts and expects not to earn profit till 2008.
Ford motor (F: chart) fell 12% on deeper than expected cuts in salaried jobs. The company announced that a third of it salaried staff or 14,000 position will cut by the end of the year. The company also pushed out till the target year for North American division profit till the year 2009. The company is also reported to be in talks with its UAW employees and offer them a buyout of up to $140,000. The company will close three more plants and suspend dividend beginning fourth quarter. The company has been perceived as late in facing the reality of changed market. With the reduction announced, the company projects its manufacturing capacity to 3.6 million vehicles or 26% lower than in the year 2005. The company plans to save $5 billion in annually.

International Continental Exchange (ICE: chart) $8.75 or 13.5% on the news that it has agreed to pay $1 billion to purchase New York Board of Trade. The exchange will offer $400 million in cash and 10.3 million in shares and will require government approval.

Airlines shares closed lower as oil futures climbed and Fitch rating service lowered debt rating of JetBlue Airways Corp. (JBLU: chart)

12:30PM European markets closed mostly higher.
European markets finished mostly higher as U.S. core consumer prices inflation data raised hopes that the Fed Reserve will not raise interest rates at its forthcoming meeting. The upbeat data helped offset a sharp decline by the shares of DaimlerChrysler. The auto maker fell 5.6% in Germany after the company cut its 2006 outlook, expecting operating profit of roughly 5 billion euros, compared to a market estimate of 6 billion euros. Resource stocks posted some weakness, dragged by lower commodities prices. Oil giant BP ended down 2% on news certain investors requested meetings with top executives over concerns about the company’s safety record. Miners Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton also declined. The German DAX 30 advanced 0.5%, the French CAC 40 gained 0.4%, while London FTSE 100 closed flat at 5.877.

Oil prices declined below $63 after OPEC lowered its oil-demand forecast for the rest of 2006. Light crude October delivery fell 70 cents to $62.52 a barrel. Natural gas futures gained 9 cents to $4.98 per 1,000 cubic feet. Heating oil inched down to $1.695 a gallon, while gasoline added slightly to $1.55. London Brent October delivery lost 79 cents to trade at $62.75. The U.S. dollar advanced versus major currencies. The euro traded at $1.2646, down from $1.2729. The dollar bought 117.56 yen, up from 117.49. The British pound stood at $1.8768, down from $1.8864. European gold posted a decline Friday. In London the precious metal traded at $575.70, down from $587.60 per ounce. In Zurich gold traded at $574.70, down from $590.35. Silver closed at $10.55, down from $11.09..


11:30AM Market averages rallied on a year-low crude oil and tame inflation.
A decline in crude oil prices to a one-year low and data showing tame consumer inflation drove market averages sharply higher. Crude-oil futures fell to $62.45 a barrel, extending a week-long slide on speculation that oil demand is weakening. The good news offset disappointment with Ford Motors Co.'s (F: chart) restructuring plan. Shares of the auto maker slid 14% on news it would cut its workforce by about 14,000 jobs and suspend the payment of its quarterly dividend. Recently the market has lost some ground due to weakness among networking, healthcare provider, and disk drive stocks.

Among Friday’s movers, shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. (BMY: chart) advanced 1.4% following a news report that rival drug manufacturer Schering-Plough (SGP: chart) may wish to buy the company. Adobe Systems (ADBE: chart) climbed 11.7% after the company reported Q3 earnings that fell from year-earlier levels but exceeded expectations. Marsh & McLennan (MMC: chart) added 2.6% after it said it said it would cut 750 jobs or about 1.3% of its workforce, as part of its plan to cut costs by $350 million by the end of 2008. The Dow Jones industrial average was up 47.38 points, or 0.41%.The Standard & Poor's 500 Index was up 4.25 points, or 0.32%.The Nasdaq Composite Index was up 7.01 points, or 0.31%.

10:30AM The Sensex ends above 12,000 level in a narrow market-breadth.
The Sensex on BSE closed with a gain of 36.57 points, or 0.31%, at 12,009.59. The market-breadth was negative, with 1,055 shares advancing on BSE, 1,442 that declined and 72 shares that were unchanged. From the Sensex stocks 16 advanced while 14 declined. The turnover on BSE was Rs 3,444 crore, much lower than Thursday's Rs 4,069 crore. The turnover on NSE was Rs 6,873.17 crore.

Advancers

Grasim led the advancers, gaining 3.69% to Rs 2,480.05 on a volume of 1.51 lakh shares. Satyam Computers jumped 2.28%, to Rs 828.60, L&T advanced 3.62% to Rs 2631 and Hindustan Lever moved up 1.55% to Rs 242.70. Index heavy Reliance Industries surged 1.20% to Rs 1,139.50 on a volume of 12.48 lakh shares. It peaked at an intra-day high of Rs 1,143.70, while the low was Rs 1,115.

Cement companies were in focus on hopes that cement prices may be raised shortly in view of robust demand, in the aftermath of the monsoon. Kesoram Industries was up 5% to Rs 450.15, JK Lakshmi Cement jumped 3.78% to Rs 162, Mangalam Cement soared 4% to Rs 207.60, ACC edged up 1.11% to Rs 945, Prism Cements gained 2.26% to Rs 40.80 and Shree Cements advanced 5.29% to Rs 1,048.

Engineering large-cap BHEL made an impressive come-back after sinking to a low of Rs 2,235.50. The company rose to Rs 2,281 and ended 0.45% higher, at Rs 2,275 on a volume of 67,833 shares.