Pick of the early market news

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Another bump up for the FTSE-100. It finished Wednesday 46 points up at 5,441.8. Asian markets were also given some encouragement, following further comments from European Commission boss Jose Manuel Barroso after calling for tighter regulation of EU bank debt. The Nikkei 225 was up almost 1% while Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 1.9%. Expect more volatility. A slew of US third quarter company results are on their way...