Celebrating the Good News...Lotteries, Drinks and Surveys

Today I have 3 bits of good news to share with you. First is my lottery win last night- but, fear not, I shall not be adopting a life of leisure and giving up doing the morning comment and the daily
grind. Instead, I shall invest my £2 wisely across a range of investments and know that I have that extra security for my retirement.

Second... Another study has shown that two alcoholic drinks a day helps reduce high blood pressure- meaning some of our colleagues must have the lowest blood pressures on record. From my point of view, someone just pointed out it doesn't help me as I tend to fall over after one drink....good point.

Third, the consumer confidence and ISM data in the UK and US yesterday were all very strong and do suggest a growing feeling that we are pulling away from recession and growth is possible. Of course, the question always was not whether we would come out of recession, but can we stay out. Never mind, today at least; let's not be churlish about good news. US equities traded in positive territory yesterday until the last 90 minutes when they dipped into negative territory and eventually closed just about unchanged. CDX index also closed with little movement and corporate spreads felt tighter, but people tell me it was so quiet it was hard to actually prove that. Highlight of the new issue market was $2bn from Time Warner, their first issue for 3 years. The US today has productivity, jobless and factory order data, the UK has the BOE rates and asset purchase announcements and not much else. Happy Thursday... Please, no begging letters.