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

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18 Oct 2012

UK Corporate Announcements

Booker Group reports H1 sales gained 3.3% to £1.9bn and states that trade overall remains in line with its expectations

Ladbrokes announces Q3 net revenues gained 3.9% and states that the performance for 2012 is seen in line with the forecasts

Man Group details assets under management of $60bn and states that investor sentiment remains subdued and that it remains on track to deliver cost savings

Brtivic announces full year revenues of £1.26bn in line with the forecasts and states that the merger talks with AG Barr are ongoing

SABMiller details H1 organic lager volumes gained 4% just under the forecasts, and sees final performance in line with the forecasts

Mecom states that it maintains its full year outlook and that its strategic review process continues

Go Ahead Group maintains its full year forecasts after reporting strong trading

Low & Bonar warns that they now see overall full year profits under the current forecasts

Xaar announces net cash of £18.8m and sees Q4 in line

Mothercare states that its strategy is showing some early signs of progress as it details that LFL sales have returned to growth

United Business Media maintains its outlook and details its board recommends a return to UK tax domicile

Cairn Energy states that it has been pleased with the progress it made this year

UK Market News

The Times writes that the Kremlin is working on a plan to seize control of the TNK BP joint venture and would see BP take a large stake in the ‘Kremlin backed’ Rosneft which could become the world’s largest publicly traded oil producer, after the billionaire owners of the TNK BP unit reportedly dropped out of the running. The CEO’s of BP and Rosneft are expected to meet in London today

The chairman of RBS suggests that the government could start selling shares in the bank before the next election

The Telegraph writes that Bwin.Party gained yesterday on some possible M&A talk

Anglogold has had its ratings cut to junk by S&P citing the ongoing strikes in South Africa

UK sells £3.75bn 2019 bonds at 10:30

UK Analyst Upgrades

Informa Rated New Buy At Jefferies; Pt 474P

William Hill Raised From Underweight At Morgan Stanley

UK Analyst Cuts

Shell Cut To Sell Vs Neutral At Goldman

UK Insider Buying

Travis Perkins Plc, (TPK), 1 insider(s) bought 1,000 shares, £11.22

Interquest Group Plc, (ITQ), 1 insider(s) bought 4,000 shares, £0.41

Major European Companies Reporting

Actelion Ltd, Q3, 0.723,  Akzo Nobel NV, Q3, 1.022,  Booker Group PLC, S1, 0,  Modern Times Group AB, Q3, 5.207,  Nokia OYJ, Q3, -0.096,  Svenska Cellulosa AB, Q3, 1.852,  Tele2 AB, Q3, 2.857,  Telenet Group Holding NV, Q3, 0.275

European Market Summary

EU leaders meet in Brussels today ahead of a two day summit where the Greek PM is seen arguing for a 2 year extension to meet its bailout targets

Spain sells 2,3 and 10 year bonds today and also will be eyed as the Bank of Spain releases this morning the latest update on bad loans, in July 9.86% of total loans were bad loans, and this could now top 10%. The worst case scenario detailed in Spanish stress tests gave a 1% probability of the events occurring, analysts now fear this is now much more likely

The spread between German and Portugal bonds has narrowed to its tightest since May 2011, highlighting that the eurozone contagion fears have eased for the moment

Germany yesterday cuts its own economic growth forecasts for 2013 to 1% from 1.6%

Akzo Nobel announces it is taking a €2.5bn write down at its decorative paints unit

S&P 500 Companies Reporting

Advanced Micro Devices Inc, Q3, 0.015,  Baxter International Inc, Q3, 1.136,  BB&T Corp, Q3, 0.714,  Boston Scientific Corp, Q3, 0.106,  Capital One Financial Corp, Q3, 1.754,  Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc, Q3, 2.293,  Danaher Corp, Q3, 0.786,  Diamond Offshore Drilling Inc, Q3, 1.01,  E*TRADE Financial Corp, Q3, 0.084,  Fifth Third Bancorp, Q3, 0.386,  Genuine Parts Co, Q3, 1.12,  Google Inc, Q3, 10.539,  Huntington Bancshares Inc/OH, Q3, 0.17,  KeyCorp, Q3, 0.206,  Laboratory Corp of America Holdings, Q3, 1.743,  Microsoft Corp, Q1, 0.596,  Morgan Stanley, Q3, 0.25,  Nucor Corp, Q3, 0.407,  People’s United Financial Inc, Q3, 0.184,  Philip Morris International Inc, Q3, 1.388,  PPG Industries Inc, Q3, 2.204,  Robert Half International Inc, Q3, 0.385,  SanDisk Corp, Q3, 0.334,  Snap-on Inc, Q3, 1.233,  Southwest Airlines Co, Q3, 0.132,  Travelers Cos Inc/The, Q3, 1.508,  Union Pacific Corp, Q3, 2.174,  Verizon Communications Inc, Q3, 0.648

S&P 500 Ex Dividends (gross):- Apache Corp, APA, (.17), Caterpillar Inc, CAT*, (.52), CR Bard Inc, BCR, (.20), CVS Caremark Corp, CVS*, (.1625), Hormel Foods Corp, HO7, (.15), Iron Mountain Inc, IM6, (2012/11/21), Washington Post Co/The, WPO, (2.45)

Major US Stock Movers After Hours

Given Imaging gained over 12% after hours as it announces that it was evaluating a sale of the business

Novavax gained 5% as it announced that its vaccine candidates met endpoints in both trials

EBay lifted the lower end of its full year revenue forecasts, and sees a Q4 adjusted EPS of 66c-69c against forecasts of around 68c and slipped a touch in late trading, around 1%

American Express detailed a Q3 EPS of $1.09 largely in line as growth in card spending slows as forecasted

Xilinx stated it now sees Q3 sales under the mid-point of the current estimates

US Market News

In the US the corporate reporting season continues to move into top gear

Apple is due to open a new store in Beijing today which will be the largest of its stores in Asia

Bloomberg details how average daily volumes for US equities has fallen 36% from 2009 and the average fee to trade shares has fallen 31% with many of Wall Street’s smaller firms seen exiting their stock trading businesses

Amazon is reportedly in talks to acquire Brazil’s Saraiva Bookstore

Overnight Market News

The National Bureau of Statistics has Chinese industrial production and retail sales accelerating in September, while GDP gained 7.4% from 7.6% in the previous quarter

Pimco suggests that investors should focus on Asia’s local currency debt as the slowdown in China could force neighbouring countries to cut rates

Japanese – Chinese tension will remain high as two Japanese cabinet ministers have visited a war shrine in Tokyo, visits of this type in the past to this shrine have caused controversy across the region

Reuters reports that the US authorities investigations into Huawei finds no spying evidence

FX Summary

The yen has come down to a one month low as Asian stock markets gain in recent weeks and as safe haven buying eases

Pimco states that it expects the sovereign rating of the US to be cut, as fears of the Fiscal Cliff are increasingly talked about amongst economists, but as yet the major hurdle has hardly been mentioned in the Presidential election campaigns

Commodity Summary

Goldman has cuts its forecasts for Brent to $110 from $130 yesterday but oil still tracked higher yesterday as the economic recovery story currently is out-weighing the eurozone debt concerns

Economic Data Due

09:30 UK September Retail Sales, 0.5% exp. -0.3% previous

13:30 US Initial Jobless Claims, 339k prev.

15:00 US September Leading Indicators, 0.1% exp. -0.1% exp.

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