London experienced a quiet morning, but the trend remained down, with the US market expected to open lower when it resumes trading today after yesterday's Thanksgiving Day holiday. US markets will close early today to enable traders to join the throngs of shoppers enjoying - or enduring - 'Black Friday', traditionally the busiest shopping day of the year in the US.On this side of the pond, another retailer has issued a profit warning. This time round it is serial offender Blacks Leisure, which said full-year results are likely to be below expectations unless it has an absolutely stonking Christmas. That is looking unlikely, as the group said sales have tailed off in recent weeks, prompting it to cut prices to lure shoppers in. London-focused pubs group Fuller's is having a slightly better time of it on the High Street, however. The shares have a bit of a head on them, after adjusted profit before tax, which excludes exceptional items, rose by 5% to £16.5m from £15.7m at the interim stage of 2010. Sector peer Marston's rises in sympathy.WATERED DOWNSevern Trent, best known as a water utility but also a supplier of water and waste water treatment solutions, is short of support this morning. Profits came in towards the bottom end of expectation. Interim profit before tax tumbled 35.4% to £65.3m from £101.1m the year before, but with exceptional items and losses on financial instruments stripped out, profits were more or less flat, at £155.0m, versus £168.0m last year. The group's legion of income-hungry shareholders were kept happy by an interim dividend of 28.04p, up 7.7% on last year in line with Severn Trent's policy of increasing payments by three percentage points above retail price inflation. CLEANING UPContract caterer Compass is looking to clean up in South Africa, after acquiring Supercare Services Group for an undisclosed sum. Supercare is one of South Africa's leading cleaning companies. In the year to 28 February 2011, Supercare generated revenue of around £63.6m and had gross assets of about £12m. Cash-strapped food manufacturer Premier Foods is to get a new chief financial officer. Mark Moran, previously finance director at Durex condoms maker SSL International, will replace Jim Smart early next month, though Smart will hang around for a month to enable a smooth hand-over. The shares have reacted favourably to the appointment. Moran will oversee negotiations with the firm's bankers over refinancing of the group's huge debt mountain. Premier was given some breathing space by its bankers earlier this month when they agreed to defer end of year loan covenant tests by three months.ANY PORT IN A STORMThe haggling over price between oilfield safety equipment provider Cosalt and its chairman, David Ross, is over, and judging by the share price reaction, the directors of the crisis-torn firm spent most of the negotiations bent over an oil barrel.Cosalt shareholders will be entitled to receive 0.1p in cash per Cosalt share in cash under the terms of the agreed offer, which represents a discount of around 87.18% to the closing price of 0.78p on 16 November, the last dealing day before Ross made his low-ball offer.The rally by cash-strapped package tour operator Thomas Cook continues, with the shares up by one-tenth in early trading; it will only take another eight days or so of 10% gains before the shares are back roughly to where they were before the company announced it was running short of cash.FTSE 100 - RisersNational Grid (NG.) 626.00p +0.97%Compass Group (CPG) 550.50p +0.92%Admiral Group (ADM) 860.50p +0.70%Intertek Group (ITRK) 1,846.00p +0.38%Pearson (PSON) 1,073.00p +0.37%Royal Dutch Shell 'B' (RDSB) 2,143.50p +0.23%Morrison (Wm) Supermarkets (MRW) 308.70p +0.23%Rolls-Royce Group (RR.) 670.00p +0.15%Royal Dutch Shell 'A' (RDSA) 2,072.50p +0.12%GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) 1,329.50p +0.04%FTSE 100 - FallersVedanta Resources (VED) 898.00p -5.97%Antofagasta (ANTO) 1,001.00p -3.19%Man Group (EMG) 121.80p -3.18%Schroders (SDR) 1,173.00p -3.14%Severn Trent (SVT) 1,476.00p -3.09%Kazakhmys (KAZ) 783.00p -3.03%Old Mutual (OML) 102.00p -2.67%Schroders (Non-Voting) (SDRC) 1,000.00p -2.53%Lonmin (LMI) 943.50p -2.48%Investec (INVP) 324.60p -2.46%FTSE 250 - RisersThomas Cook Group (TCG) 19.75p +20.80%Premier Foods (PFD) 4.71p +3.86%Dixons Retail (DXNS) 10.38p +3.59%Premier Farnell (PFL) 165.70p +3.11%TUI Travel (TT.) 152.30p +2.28%Phoenix Group Holdings (DI) (PHNX) 521.50p +2.25%De La Rue (DLAR) 904.00p +1.92%Marston's (MARS) 89.50p +1.59%FTSE 250 - FallersSupergroup (SGP) 441.70p -7.01%International Personal Finance (IPF) 169.20p -4.94%Ashtead Group (AHT) 152.00p -4.34%Aquarius Platinum Ltd. (AQP) 145.00p -4.29%Chemring Group (CHG) 394.10p -4.27%Ferrexpo (FXPO) 246.00p -3.87%Petropavlovsk (POG) 625.00p -3.77%Misys (MSY) 240.90p -3.56%Shaftesbury (SHB) 450.10p -3.54%Homeserve (HSV) 228.50p -3.46%--jh