Bajaj Auto led the decliners, down 1.10%, to Rs 3,113 on trading volume of 30,506 shares. Other decliners included Tata Steel falling 1.06% to Rs 511, SBI down 0.81% to Rs 1,021.10, Cipla shedding 0.42% to Rs 260.50 and Reliance Energy sinking 0.37% to Rs 462.


9:45AM Market opened lower on weaker retail sales.
U.S. stock markets opened below the unchanged mark as investors reacted to a report showing an unexpected drop in September retail sales and an inline-with-estimates earnings report from General Electric failed to inspire. The Commerce Department reported 0.4% decline in retail sales last month, largely due to a 9.3% drop in spending on gasoline. A rise in crude-oil prices was also contributed to the weakness. Light, sweet crude gained 92 cents to $58.78 a barrel in pre-market electronic trading on the Nymex.

General Electric (GE: chart), diversified manufacturer, dropped 1.4% after reporting Q3 net income rise of 6%, matching forecasts, helped by 12% sales growth. Another Dow component, Microsoft (MSFT: chart), gained 0.5% after it said it remains on track for the release of its Windows Vista operating system worldwide to volume license business customers in November with general availability following in January. Among stocks driven by analyst comments, Altria Group (MO: chart) added 0.7% after UBS upgraded the stock to neutral from reduce, citing valuation. Yahoo (YHOO: chart) fell 1% after broker Thomas Weisel downgraded the Internet company to peer perform from outperform. In the first minutes of trading, the Dow Jones industrial average fell 15.37, or 0.13%, to 11,932.33. The Standard & Poor''s 500 index was down 1.06, or 0.08%, and the Nasdaq composite index was off 4.78, or 0.20%, at 2,341.40.


Import and export prices dropped in September due to steeply lower petroleum prices.
The Department of Labor released its report on import and export prices in the month of September on Friday, showing that import prices pulled back sharply after trending higher in recent months. The report showed that import prices fell 2.1 percent in September after rising 0.8 percent in each of the two previous months. The decrease marks the first drop in import prices since a 0.1 percent drop in March. The drop in import prices was largely due to a steep drop in petroleum import prices, which fell 10.3 percent in September after rising 2.1 percent in August. Excluding petroleum imports, import prices rose 0.1 percent in September. Export prices also fell in September, dropping by 0.5 percent following a 0.4 percent increase in August. This marked the first drop in export prices since November of 2005. A decrease in agricultural export prices contributed to the decrease, with agricultural export prices falling 0.7 percent in September after rising 0.9 percent in August. Nonetheless, export prices still fell 0.5 percent excluding the drop in agricultural export prices.

Retail sales unexpectedly fell in September.
Friday morning, the Department of Commerce released its report on retail sales in the month of September, showing that sales fell unexpectedly. The decrease was partly due to a steep decline in sales at gas stations. The report showed that retail sales fell 0.5 percent in September after edging up by 0.1 percent in August. The drop in sales came as a surprise to economists, who had expected retail sales to increase 0.2 percent. The drop in retail sales was due in large part to a steep decline in gas station sales, which fell 9.3 percent in September after falling 1.3 percent in August. The decrease came as the price of gasoline pulled back well off its recent highs. The Commerce Department also said that sales, excluding auto sales, fell 0.5 percent in September following a 0.2 percent increase in August. Economists had been expecting ex-auto sales to come in unchanged. Meanwhile, the report showed some growth in sales at clothing and clothing accessories stores, where sales rose 3.0 percent in September after falling 0.2 percent in August.


9:30 AM The FTSE 100 retreats from earlier record highs, still trading positive.
The FTSE 100 in London was 24.60 points, or 0.40% higher, at 6,145.90, at 2:22 pm GMT.

Advancers

A surge for oil prices on Friday supported the energy sector higher, and BP gained 1.8% while BG Group advanced 1.6%. In the volatile mining stocks, BHP Billiton rose 1.7%, while Kazakhmys added 1.7%.

Vodafone had quitted Carphone and chosen rival chain Phones4U as its exclusive retailer for contract customers in the UK. Vodafone shares gained 1.2%.

Decliners

Financial shares declined Bradford & Bingley shed 1.1% as ABN Amro reduced its rating from buy to hold while HBOS lost 0.6% after a downgrade from Goldman Sachs. Barclays fell 0.4% after HSBC downgraded the bank from neutral to underweight. The same broker however, lifted its rating on Lloyds TSB from underweight to neutral and raised its price target from. Lloyds shares gained 2.6%.

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 intererest 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.