THIS WEEK IN THE MARKETS

IT was the same old pattern on the Dublin market over the past week - investors in Dublin (and London and Paris and Frankfurt and virtually everywhere else) kept their eyes fixed on Wall Street.

As things turned out, Wall Street was something of a damp squib with the much feared sell offs on Monday and Thursday failing to materialise.

IBM also produced the goods in the form of better than expected results, taking some of the pressure off the US high technology sector which has been the driving force behind Wall Street's current bout of the wobbles.

Intel's results last week may have been the big figures of the week on Wall Street, but the figures from Big Blue this week were even more keenly anticipated as a gauge of how bad or otherwise is the situation in the high tech sector.

IBM duly produced figures, which, while they may not have been bumper results, at least were ahead of forecasts and included a positive comment on likely second half trading. IBM's subsequent gain accounted for half of the 67 point rise in the Dow on Thursday.

Not surprisingly, international equity markets tracked Wall Street closely. And while most of the trading in Dublin involved small lots of stock, CRH and Smurfit both saw some substantial dealing in London.

CRH seems to have finally touched bottom in its current tear phase, but it is still a long way off its high of 652p of earlier in the year. There does seem to be reasonable grounds for improvement.

Financial shares were also weaker but in the short -term will now be looking more to the British clearing banks' reporting season, which is currently under way and AIB's half year results next Thursday. Those AIB figures are not expected to produce any significant surprises.

Independent Newspapers' name is inevitably mentioned when any big media group is put on the block, so it is hardly any surprise that Independent has been linked with a bid for Westminster Press, the British regional newspaper beings sold off by Pearson.

What significant is that it being suggested that Independent and Mirror will use Newspaper Publishing as the vehicle for a joint bid for Westminster, a move - that has positive tax implications for the joint venture company.

Newspaper Publishing may be losing money like a drain leaking water, but it has huge tax losses - in the order of £70 million has been built up. Still, it will come as a surprise if Independent's cash resources are directed towards Westminster Press, and not towards buying out the O'Reilly interests in the Australian and New Zealand media operations.

The daily sector remains under the microscope as milk prices continue to erode operating margins. Davy did not pull its punches this week when it warned that the credibility of some dairy companies as listed concerns will come under question if they are not seen as being able to "manage" milk prices.

Davy did not name specific companies, but Golden Vale and Waterford Foods are the only two dairy plc's forecast to report lower profits in the current year.

Finally, the ESRI's comments on the prospects for the domestic gilt market, post EMU, must have caused ripples on dealing desks. One of its main conclusions is that the secondary gilt market in Dublin would be in danger of migrating to London or Frankfurt post EMU.