The major US equity averages are now trading ever so slightly higher (Dow Jones Industrial: 13, Nasdaq Comp.: 12, S&P 500: -2) ahead of this afternoon's meeting of The Federal Reserve's Open Market Committee (FOMC), with many market observers banking on the monetary authority announcing some sort of modification in its holdings of government debt, so as to increase the expansionary effects of its policy.

Acting as a backdrop, news from Greece is also eagerly being waited for.

On the company front it is worth highlighting that Microsoft has announced a 25% increase in its dividend. The most noteworthy news however are the strong rises to be seen in shares of Oracle and Adobe following their latest quarterly results out last night.

Coal producer Alpha Natural could modify its 2012 financial guidance while Walter Energy has warned on its Q3 results.

First Solar is also falling sharply.

General Mills and Illinois Tool Works have both published results.

Apache has acquired $1.75bn in assets from Exxon Mobil in the North Sea.

The Turkish Prime Minister has today vociferously criticized the oil and natural gas exploration efforts of Noble Energy off the Cypriot coast.

United Technologies and Goodrich could be close to a take-over agreement.

Goldman Sachs has raised its price target on Apple to $520/share.

MACROECONOMY

Existing home sales grew by 7.7% on month in August, to an annualized rate of 5.03m (Consensus: 4.8m).

The Federal Reserve will announce the results of their deliberations tonight, at 7:15 PM London time.

OTHER MARKETS

Front month crude futures are now falling 0.69% to the $86.32/barrel mark in NYMEX trading.

10 year US treasuries are now rising slightly, by 1/32 dollars, to the 1.93% mark.

S&P 500 - Risers
Autodesk Inc. (ADSK) $30.04 +6.87%
Oracle Corp. (ORCL) $30.24 +6.67%
General Mills Inc. (GIS) $38.88 +3.71%
Citrix Systems Inc. (CTXS) $56.85 +3.67%
Williams Companies Inc. (WMB) $27.81 +3.54%
Sprint Nxtel Corp. (S) $3.44 +3.45%
Adobe Systems Inc. (ADBE) $25.47 +3.37%
eBay Inc. (EBAY) $33.49 +2.34%
Red Hat Inc. (RHT) $40.97 +2.20%
Lennar Corp. Class A (LEN) $14.39 +2.06%

S&P 500 - Fallers
First Solar Inc. (FSLR) $72.61 -8.33%
Norfolk Southern Corp. (NSC) $63.46 -6.05%
CSX Corp. (CSX) $19.19 -5.14%
Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. (CLF) $67.04 -5.05%
Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. (FCX) $36.77 -4.62%
Frontier Communications Co. (FTR) $6.53 -3.69%
Peabody Energy Corp. (BTU) $41.68 -2.84%
Union Pacific Corp. (UNP) $85.95 -2.75%
Agilent Technologies Inc. (A) $34.20 -2.43%
Hudson City Bancorp Inc. (HCBK) $5.81 -2.19%

Dow Jones I.A - Risers
United Technologies Corp. (UTX) $77.13 +1.47%
American Express Co. (AXP) $49.98 +1.44%
International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) $177.16 +1.39%
Merck & Co. Inc. (MRK) $32.79 +0.91%
Kraft Foods Inc. (KFT) $34.71 +0.55%
Intel Corp. (INTC) $22.32 +0.54%
Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ) $36.59 +0.49%
Coca-Cola Co. (KO) $70.88 +0.33%
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT) $52.45 +0.31%
Walt Disney Co. (DIS) $32.39 +0.25%

Dow Jones I.A - Fallers
Caterpillar Inc. (CAT) $81.88 -2.13%
JP Morgan Chase & Co. (JPM) $31.82 -1.34%
Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) $26.70 -1.02%
Bank of America Corp. (BAC) $6.84 -0.80%
Pfizer Inc. (PFE) $18.09 -0.79%
Travelers Company Inc. (TRV) $50.06 -0.71%
E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Co. (DD) $45.73 -0.50%
Chevron Corp. (CVX) $97.33 -0.47%
3M Co. (MMM) $78.85 -0.45%
General Electric Co. (GE) $15.98 -0.37%

Nasdaq 100 - Risers
Autodesk Inc. (ADSK) $30.04 +6.87%
Oracle Corp. (ORCL) $30.24 +6.67%
Citrix Systems Inc. (CTXS) $56.85 +3.67%
Adobe Systems Inc. (ADBE) $25.47 +3.37%
Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. ADS (TEVA) $37.60 +2.69%
eBay Inc. (EBAY) $33.49 +2.34%
Broadcom Corp. (BRCM) $36.51 +1.95%
Dell Inc. (DELL) $15.16 +1.87%
BMC Software Inc. (BMC) $42.04 +1.77%
Sandisk Corp. (SNDK) $43.28 +1.48%

Nasdaq 100 - Fallers
First Solar Inc. (FSLR) $72.61 -8.33%
Joy Global Inc. (JOYG) $72.83 -4.01%
Illumina Inc. (ILMN) $43.84 -2.53%
J.B. Hunt Transport Services Inc. (JBHT) $37.20 -2.03%
Foster Wheeler AG (FWLT) $20.97 -1.96%
Virgin Media Inc. (VMED) $25.62 -1.95%
DIRECTV (DTV) $42.82 -1.81%
Research in Motion Ltd. (RIMM) $22.33 -1.76%
Warner Chilcott Plc (WCRX) $15.92 -1.55%
Gilead Sciences Inc. (GILD) $40.28 -1.37%

AB

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