Market news round up, upgrades & downgrades courtesy of Cantor Index

UK Corporate Announcements

Tate & Lyle announces that it sees H1 adjusted operating profit in line with the expectations and sees solid sales growth for the full year

TUI Travel states it is on track to meet its full year targets as UK summer 2013 bookings were outperforming the market

Nationwide Accident Repair announces an H1 pre-tax profit of £2.1m on revenues of £80.7m

3i Infrastructure states that it has continued to perform well

Compass Group announces it is to simplify its business in Europe and that economic conditions in the region have worsened over the year, but maintains its 2012 and 2013 expectations

Iomart states that it sees full year results coming in ahead of the expectations and that it will pursue further opportunities for acquisitions

UK Market News

UK GDP data out at 09:30 will give the market further detail on the state of the UK economy, with expectations of another -0.5% fall

Petrofac announces it has been awarded a $200m contract in Kuwait

Glanbia details today that its CEO has resigned

RBS is seen pricing its Direct Line unit at around £2.6bn, just under the previous expectations of a range between £2.7-2.9bn

AngloGold Ashanti is the latest miner to halt operations in South Africa as thousands go on strike, and as local industry is concerned that the striking currently largely within the gold and platinum sectors could spread to other industries

The Times details how David Cameron is attempting to increase the pressure on Russia and China by stating that the blood of dying children in Syria would leave a ‘terrible stain’ on their hands unless they end their support of the current regime

UK Analyst Upgrades

Dairy Crest Raised To Buy From Add At Numis

Shire Pipeline Warming-Up, Raised to Buy at Jefferies

UK Analyst Cuts

Hays Cut To Neutral Vs Outperform At Credit Suisse

Ladbrokes Cut To Underweight From Neutral At Jpmorgan

UK Insider Buying

Barclays Plc, (BARC), 1 insider(s) bought 25,000 shares, £2.16

Sig Plc, (SHI), 1 insider(s) bought 30,000 shares, £1

Sabmiller Plc, (SAB), 1 insider(s) bought 461 shares, £27.3

UK Insider Selling

Berkeley Group Holding, (BKG), 1 insider(s) sold 500,000 shares, £14.55

Genus Plc, (GNS),  insider(s) sold 84,222 shares, £14.75

Mondi Plc, (MNDI),  insider(s) sold 20,000 shares, £6.14

Pennon Group Plc, (PNN), 1 insider(s) sold 10,633 shares, £7.48

Major European Companies Reporting

Hennes & Mauritz AB, Q3, 2.474

European Market Summary

Banking practises will be back in the general press as Kareem Serageldin has been arrested in London as he was negotiating his surrender to US authorities, the ex head of Credit Suisse’s CDO business has been charged with bonus fraud

VW states that it sees some automakers going bankrupt without government help

L’Oréal’s chief has criticised the 75% income tax plan stating it would make it ‘almost impossible’ to hire talent

Spanish 10 year yields have moved back above 6%, as protests grow around the parliament for the second night and ahead of the announcement today for its budget plans for 2013 and also announced detail of its banking stress tests

S&P 500 Companies Reporting

Accenture PLC, Q4, 0.879,  Discover Financial Services, Q3, 1.043,  McCormick & Co Inc/MD, Q3, 0.761,  Micron Technology Inc, Q4, -0.221,  NIKE Inc, Q1, 1.127

S&P 500 Ex Dividends (gross):- Air Products & Chemicals Inc, APD, (.64),  American Tower Corp, AMT, (.23),  Cardinal Health Inc, CAH, (.2375),  Dell Inc, DELL, (.08),  PG&E Corp, PCG, (.455),  Quest Diagnostics Inc, DGX, (.17),  Republic Services Inc, RSG, (.235),  State Street Corp, STT, (.24)

Major US Stock Movers After Hours

Thor gained over 10% in late trading after it details a higher Q4 than the expectations and sales of $886m

US Market News

Global M&A activity in Q3 has fallen to its lowest level since the start of the financial crisis, with the full year total now expected to drop around 15% in the full year to $2tn

Comtech announces that it believes a grand jury is investigating its CEO over contacts with the Israeli scientific attaché, while a US based worker at L3 Communications has been found guilty of stealing files and illegally sending them to China

Polls continue to suggest that President Obama is on track to regain his presidency unless Romney is able to post a sizeable move on the undecided/uninterested voters in the key swing states next month

Overnight Market News

Baosteel the largest listed Chinese steel maker announces that it is suspending production at one of its plants due to lower demand

Japan’s Noda has stated that Japan would never move on its ownership of the islands in the East China Sea

FX Summary

The euro stays down near two month lows ahead of the Spanish news due today and as protests continue in Spain and in Greece on the ongoing austerity measures

Commodity Summary

Crude has now dropped under $90 in New York trading

Reuters details how US authorities have lodged a landmark fine in the cotton futures market, and details how one Chinese trader had a $510m position in the market during last year’s ‘blistering winter price rally’

Economic Data Due

09:00 Eurozone August M3, 3.4% exp. 3.4% previous

09:30 UK Q2 GDP, -0.5% exp. -0.5% previous

10:00 Eurozone September Consumer Confidence, -25.9 exp. -25.9 previous

13:30 US Q2 GDP annualised, 1.7% exp. 1.7% previous

13:30 US August Durable Goods Orders, -4.5% exp. 4.2% previous

13:30 US Initial Jobless Claims, 378k exp. 382k previous

15:00 US August Pending Home Sales m/m, -0.6% exp. 2.4% previous

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