Other blue-chip decliners included Alliance & Leicester, down 0.9%, and Amvescap, off 1.7%. Carphone Warehouse fell another 6% after Orange stated it was considering changes to its high street strategy.

Other news

Lloyds TSB is close to its long-awaited first sale of bonds backed by residential mortgages with a 5.62 billion pounds deal that is set to add to an upbeat market for such securitisations in Europe this year.

Evraz, second biggest steelmaker in Russia on Thursday backed away from the idea of large scale mergers and said it had no interest in linking up with the Anglo-Dutch Corus steel business.


9:00AM Stock futures were steady amid General Electric earnings report.
U.S. stock market futures were steady after industrial bellwether General Electric released in-line-with-estimate Q3 results and Yahoo came in focus after a broker downgrade. The Dow looked ready to continue the strong rally they started on Thursday when it hit an all-time high of 11, 947.70, pushed higher by optimism over corporate earnings. The blue-chip index looked to advance past 12,000 Friday a day after reaching its fifth record close in two weeks. On Thursday, upbeat results at leading companies lifted the Dow to a record high. McDonald''s (MCD: chart) rose 2.38% after saying systemwide same-store sales rose 9.8% in September. Warehouse chain Costco Wholesale Corp. (COST: chart) jumped 7.7% after reporting its fiscal Q4 profit rose 1%. Yum Brands Inc. (YUM: chart) advanced 8.26% on 12% profit growth in Q3.

General Electric Co. (GE: chart), industrial products, financial services and media conglomerate, reported Q3 profit growth of 6% to 48 cents a share, up from 44 cents a year ago, boosted by strong orders across the company. Revenue climbed 12% to $40.86 billion from $36.37 billion. Results included a loss from discontinued operations of $100 million and adjustments related to the Genworth and GE Insurance Solutions divestitures. The company project 2006 earnings in the range of $1.97 to $1.99 a share, above the average analyst estimate of $1.98 a share. In broker news, Yahoo (YHOO: chart) was cut to peer perform from outperform at Thomas Weisel on beliefs that the company may have a difficult time achieving medium-term consensus earnings expectations.


7:30AM Asian markets jumped buoyed by strong U.S. close.
Asian markets closed higher on Friday. The Nikkei 225 Average in Tokyo finished the day 1.02% higher at 16536.54. Stocks bounced back due to retail shares surging on news of solid earnings, while oil producers advanced on a rally in crude-oil futures.

Aeon gained 3.6%, Daiei moved up 3.7% and Maruetsu advanced 5.8% as Aeon announced it got exclusive negotiation rights to buy a stake in Daiei from Marubeni, which owns a 44.6% voting rights stake in Daiei.

Hong Kong Hang Seng Index rose 0.65% to 17988.86. HSBC Holdings rose 0.6% and China Mobile jumped 1.6%, near a six-year high. South Korea Kospi Index ended 1.26% higher at 1348.60. Leading advancers included state-run Korea Gas which rose 3.6% on positive September liquefied natural gas sales, up 5.6% from a year earlier.

Shanghai Composite Index added 0.4% to close at 1784.66. In China, gains in large-capitalized companies that forecast strong earnings pushed the stock market higher, with China Southern and Shenzhen Development Bank leading advancers.

Taipei advanced 1.21% to 7068.80 and Australia S&P/ASX 200 ended 0.58% higher at 5290.00. Australian stocks closed higher with help for mining and petroleum stocks. BHP Billiton rose 1.6% while Rio Tinto gained 3.1%. Woodside Petroleum rose 1.4%.


6:30AM European markets lower on profit taking in the banking sector.
European markets were flat-to-lower by mid morning on Friday. The FTSE 100 in London was little changed at 6,122.4, the CAC 40 in Paris was 0.1% lower at 5,355.08 and Frankfurt’s Xetra Dax also remained flat at 6,161.34.

Advancers

Oil stocks were higher as crude prices held above $58 a barrel after a surprise drop in heating oil stocks. Neste Oil, the Finnish refiner, gained 1.5%, while Norsk Hydro rose 1.4%. Michelin, the French tyre maker, gained 2.4% after Deutsche Bank raised its price target for the company.

Decliners

Banks dipped in early trading. Intesa fell 2.1%, Sanpaolo shed 2.3%, while Santander lost 0.7%. Credit Suisse downgraded both Intesa and Sanpaolo from overweight to neutral, telling investors to lock in profits.

French cosmetics group L''''Oreal shares slipped 2.9% after the company said that sales invoiced in North America have been held back by turbulence in the distribution sector.