Market news round up, upgrades & downgrades

UK Corporate Announcements

Bellway details completed house sales of 5,226 from 4,922 and a pre-tax profit of £98m and states that demand for homes has stayed resilient

Meggitt announces an H1 adjusted EBITDA of £321m just under the forecasts of £244m seen, on revenues of £776m from £650m

Legal & General reports a pre-tax profit of £525m up 11% and details a capital surplus of £3.8bn and sees further macro shocks from the eurozone

Greggs announces H1 sales of £350m up 4.5% and sees conditions for consumers as likely to remain challenging for H2

InterContinental Hotels announces H1 revenues of $878m from $850m and an adjusted EBIT of $286m from $283m, just ahead of the consensus

Mondi reports an H1 underlying pre-tax profit of €269m on revenues of €2.48bn and states that the Eurozone environment remains a concern

Xstrata announces an H1 net profit of $1.94bn from $2.92bn, citing lower commodity prices, but still ahead of the forecasts, with sales of $15.6bn from $16.8bn and states that the merger with Glencore would create a unique business model and allow for enhanced growth options

Premier Foods reports an H1 operating profit of £33.6m down 40% on H1 total sales of £757m from £749m and states that its full year forecasts remain unchanged

YouGov states that it sees full year operating profit in line and that revenues in H2 will be similar to H1

BBA Aviation announces H1 revenues of $1.094bn from $1.062bn and states that it had a challenging H1 and that there has been no material improvement in markets

UK Market News

Standard Chartered is in the news as it states that 99.9% of its Iran based trades were in compliance with US money laundering rules, after reports that New York Dept. of Financial Services has ordered the group to appoint an independent on site monitor, and warns its US unit may yet be suspended from doing business in New York, the stock has fallen 7% in Asian trading on the news

The FT writes on how the fines paid back to UK bank account holders who were mis-sold insurance products is having a greater stimulus effects than the government initiatives

Facebook is looking to add to revenues by launching new gaming services, users in the UK for example from today will be able to use an app to play online bingo for cash prizes, with slot machine games due in the coming weeks, while Zynga works on real money versions of bingo, poker and slot machines for 2013

UK Analyst Cuts

BSkyB Removed From Citi’s Most Preferred List

Reed Elsevier Cut To Hold From Buy At Berenberg

Standard Chartered Cut To Neutral Vs Buy At Nomura

UK Insider Buys

Avocet Mining Plc, (AVM), 1 insider(s) bought 50,000 shares, £0.89

UK Insider Sells

Bloomsbury Publishing, (BMY), 1 insider(s) bought 95,513 shares, £1.3

Brewin Dolphin Holding, (BRW), 1 insider(s) bought 10,000 shares, £1.54

Royal Bank Of Scotland, (RBS), 1 insider(s) bought 19,008 shares, £2.14

Smith & Nephew Plc, (SN/), 1 insider(s) bought 10,437 shares, £6.79

Major European Companies Reporting

Andritz AG, Q2, 0.58,  Bankia SA, S1, 0,  Corio NV, S1, 0,  Danske Bank A/S, Q2, 0.892,  InterContinental Hotels Group PLC, S1, 0.62,  KBC Groep NV, Q2, 0.995,  Koninklijke DSM NV, S1, 1.64,  Lanxess AG, Q2, 2.248,  Legal & General Group PLC, S1, 0.062,  Leoni AG, Q2, 1.393,  Meggitt PLC, S1, 0.15,  Mondi PLC, S1, 0.26,  Muenchener Rueckversicherungs AG, Q2, 3.801,  Prysmian SpA, S1, 0,  UPM-Kymmene OYJ, Q2, 0.181,  Voestalpine AG, Q1, 0.807,  Xstrata PLC, S1, 0.498

European Market Summary

Bloomberg suggests that Deutsche Telekom is amongst the bidders for PrimaCom Berlin, in a possible return to cable assets

Inditex gained 3.5% yesterday as the fashion retailer continues to buck the wider market slowdown, and also pushes the net worth of its founder Amancio Ortage to be the third wealthiest individual in the world, moving ahead of Warren Buffett

Monti has warned of continued risks of a eurozone breakup without greater urgency from EU authorities

Trading on the Spanish stocks also was affected for around four hours yesterday after a glitch at Bolsa & Mercados Espanoles the operator of the Madrid Stock Exchange

S&P 500 Companies Reporting

Cablevision Systems Corp, Q2, 0.189,  CVS Caremark Corp, Q2, 0.797,  Emerson Electric Co, Q3, 0.999,  Expeditors International of Washington Inc, Q2, 0.429,  Express Scripts Holding Co, Q2, 0.824,  FirstEnergy Corp, Q2, 0.641,  Fossil Inc, Q2, 0.788,  Marsh & McLennan Cos Inc, Q2, 0.584,  Molson Coors Brewing Co, Q2, 1.2,  Pepco Holdings Inc, Q2, 0.313,  PG&E Corp, Q2, 0.822,  priceline.com Inc, Q2, 7.372,  Tenet Healthcare Corp, Q2, 0.049,  Walt Disney Co/The, Q3, 0.929,  XL Group PLC, Q2, 0.546

Major US Stock Movers After Hours

Broadsoft the VOIP technology group was the major gainer overnight, up over 20%, as it reported solid quarterly numbers and also lifts its full year outlook

Pfizer came off 2% as it announce that it is to stop all Bapineuzumab studies, a planned Alzheimer’s drug, after failing to meet targets

Leap Wireless sagged over 10% as it announced that subscriber numbers had fallen worse than forecasts and as it states that it is reviewing its options

Caesars Entertainment came off 3% in late trading as it detailed a Q2 net loss wider than the forecasts, after a writedown on its Macau unit and a slower domestic market

US Market News

Best Buy has had its rating cut to junk status by S&P and the rating agency keeps a negative outlook, as the founder of Best Buy announces an offer to buy back the retailer for up to $26/share

Apple dropped Google maps from its last iPhone update and reports suggest it is also keen to drop YouTube from its next incarnation

Crumbs Bake Stores gained around 20% after hours as it announced a deal to sell Starbucks coffee in all of its stores

Knight Capital bonds have gained on the $400m injection by key investors, although due to the heavy dilution shareholders hoping to gain on any rescue were left disappointed as the stock fell again yesterday on the news, however for the medium term outlook at least its future is looking more secure

Morgan Stanley is being sued by a Singapore based finance group alleging that it deceptively sold instruments that were designed to fail

Acer’s CEO is in the news as he has criticised Microsoft’s plan to sell a tablet

Overnight Market News

The RBA overnight leaves its key rate at 3.5% in line with the forecasts

The Sri Lankan central bank overnight also leaves rates unchanged

The Topix Index Futures and Options trading was closed for more than 90 minutes overnight, citing computers issues, and is the second time this year trading has been affected on the Japanese exchange, keeping investor focus high on the reliability and safety of global exchanges

A ruling in Australia will force Facebook to vet comments made by its users after a decision by the local advertising watchdog

The Shanghai Securities News writes on how Citigroup is forming a joint venture with Orient Securities to gain a foothold in the second largest market for shares sales in the world, the unit will be based in Shanghai

FX Summary

Bloomberg writes on how the full year consensus outlook on the Brazilian real has been reduced in recent days, for the first time in two months, on concerns that the strong economy has started to show some signs of a slowdown

The Iranian rial fell on street trading yesterday after its central bank governor stated that the peg to the US Dollar would be reviewed, after some rampant inflation seen on street level in recent weeks

Commodity Summary

After the drought in the US the weather in India is also affecting farmers, with expectations that cotton harvests in the world’s second largest exporter will be lower due to the driest Monsoon rains for a number of years

Although reports suggests that Thailand is due to post a record rice harvest that could help avert a global food crisis

Economic Data Due

09:30 UK June Industrial Production, -2.8% exp. 1.0% previous

09:30 UK June Manufacturing Production, -3.8% exp. 1.2% previous

15:00 UK July NIESR GDP Estimate, -0.2% previous

20:00 US June Consumer Credit, $11bn exp. $17.1bn previous

Economic Events

Bernanke Speaks on Financial Education