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

UK Corporate Announcements

Sports Direct details 13 week retail sales gained 19.9% with gross profit up 14.8%

Berkeley Group states that it is trading in line with the forecasts and sees its full year earnings at the top end of the expectations

Hargeaves Lansdown announces a full year pre-tax profit of £152m on revenues of £238m and increases its full year net dividend up 20% to 22.59p and details that co-founder Stephen Lansdown has given notice we will step down from the board in November

Dialight confirms that its chairman will step down September 12

Endace states that progress has been made as expected and that market conditions show no signs of improvement

UK Market News

Russian oligarch Alisher Usmanov is reportedly looking to list Megafon in London, in a possible $20bn flotation, and which would be the largest IPO since Facebook

BP has been accused by the US authorities in a court case that it made ‘plainly misleading representations’ over the Gulf of Mexico oil spill

Theo Fennell states that it is in preliminary takeover talks with EME Capital

The UK sells £1.75bn of 2042 bonds today at 11:30

FTSE 100 Ex dividends (net): Aggreko PLC, AGK, (8.28),  ARM Holdings PLC, ARM, (1.67),  BHP Billiton PLC, BLT, ($.57),  Diageo PLC, DGE, (26.90),  Evraz PLC, EVR, ($.11),  IMI PLC, IMI, (11.80),  Kazakhmys PLC, KAZ, ($.03),  Resolution Ltd, RSL, (7.05),  Shire PLC, SHP, (1.74),  Serco Group PLC, SRP, (2.65),  Tullow Oil PLC, TLW, (4)

Estimated FTSE 100 Dividend Impact: 6.7 points

FTSE 250 Ex dividends (net): Amlin PLC, AML, (7.50),  AZ Electronic Materials SA, AZEM, (.04),  Betfair Group PLC, BET, (7),  British Assets Trust PLC, BSET, (1.442),  Cape PLC, CIU, (4.50),  Carillion PLC, CLLN, (5.40),  Elementis PLC, ELM, ($.0245),  Greggs PLC, GRG, (6),  International Personal Finance PLC, IPF, (3.23),  JPMorgan American Investment Trust PLC, JAM, (5),  John Laing Infrastructure Fund Ltd, JLIF, (3),  Jardine Lloyd Thompson Group PLC, JLT, (9.60),  Michael Page International PLC, MPI, (3.25),  National Express Group PLC, NEX, (3.15),  New World Resources PLC, NWR, (.06),  Phoenix Group Holdings, PHNX, (21),  Perpetual Income and Growth Investment Trust PLC, PLI, (2.55),  Personal Assets Trust PLC/Fund, PNL, (140),  Regus PLC, RGU, (1),  Segro PLC, SGRO, (4.90),  TUI Travel PLC, TT/, (3.40)

FTSE Small Share Ex dividends (net): Bilfinger Berger Global Infrastructure SICAV SA, BBGI, (2.75),  Camellia PLC, CAM, (32),  Cineworld Group PLC, CINE, (3.80),  Henderson Diversified Income Ltd, HDIV, (1.25),  IRP Property Investments Ltd, IRP, (1.80),  Jupiter European Opportunities Trust PLC, JEO, (1.85),  JPMorgan European Investment Trust PLC, JETG, (4.80),  JPMorgan European Investment Trust PLC, JETI, (3),  Novae Group PLC, NVA, (5.50),  Robert Walters PLC, RWA, (1.47),  XP Power Ltd, XPP, (11)

UK Analyst Upgrades

Anglo American Rated New Outperform At Bernstein, Pt 2,475P

ASOS Raised to Overweight from Equalweight at Barclays

BHP Billiton Rated New Outperform At Bernstein, Pt 2,400P

BT Group, TeliaSonera Raised to Overweight at JPMorgan

Colt Rated New Buy At Citi, Pt 150P

Fresnillo, Randgold Rated New Overweight at Barclays

Home Retail Raised To Buy Vs Neutral At UBS

Rio Tinto Rated New Outperform At Bernstein, Pt 4,425P

Whitbread Raised to Overweight from Neutral at JPMorgan

Xstrata Rated New Outperform At Bernstein, Pt 1,250P

UK Analyst Cuts

Debenhams Cut to Equalweight from Overweight at Barclays

UK Insider Buying

Hays Plc, (HAS), 1 insider(s) bought 14,000 shares, £0.69

Quintain Estates & Dev P, (QED), 1 insider(s) bought 5,397 shares, £0.56

UK Insider Selling

AZ Electronic Materials, (AZEM),  insider(s) sold 29,393 shares, £3.12

Lloyds Banking Group P, (LLOY), 1 insider(s) sold 166,429 shares, £0.33

Meggitt Plc, (MGGT),  insider(s) sold 32,588 shares, £3.96

Rolls-Royce Holdings P, (RR/), 1 insider(s) sold 40,747 shares, £8.32

Major European Companies Reporting

Hargreaves Lansdown PLC, R, 0.238

European Market Summary

The Guardian highlights how one of the solutions being touted is that Athens could create a national 6 day week

Santander is looking to raise €3.4bn through the listing of 25% of its Mexican unit

The spread between Spanish 2 and 10 years has moved out to a record 343bp as investors remain concerned over the long term but ahead of expectations of ECB bond buying announcements tomorrow bring 2 year yields to five month lows

Telefonica is reportedly moving closer to an IPO of its German unit as it hires advisors

French press suggests that the government is set to announce proposals to remove branding from cigarette packs

Lufthansa is facing another set of strikes this Friday, the action on Tuesday left 350 flights being cancelled

European papers suggest that EU authorities are set to approve plans by a group of major European mobile operators to create a joint mobile payments service

French press suggests that General Motors has shifted away from plans to share its mid sized car technology with Peugeot

Germany sells €5bn of 10 year notes today

S&P 500 Companies Reporting

H&R Block Inc, Q1, -0.37

S&P 500 Ex Dividends (gross):-  Bank of America Corp, BAC, (.01),  PepsiCo Inc, PEP, (.5375),  Praxair Inc, PX, (.55),  Precision Castparts Corp, PCP, (.03),  Baxter International Inc, BAX, (.45),  Becton Dickinson and Co, BDX, (.45),  QUALCOMM Inc, QCOM, (.25),  Public Service Enterprise Group Inc, PEG, (.355),  Brown-Forman Corp, BF/A, (.233333), Frontier Communications Corp, FTR, (.10),  Waste Management Inc, WM, (.355),  Coca-Cola Enterprises Inc, CCE, (.16),  Stanley Black & Decker Inc, SWK, (.49),  Gannett Co Inc, GCI, (.20),  Northern Trust Corp, NTRS, (.30),  Genuine Parts Co, GPC, (.495),  Harris Corp, HRS, (.37),  CH Robinson Worldwide Inc, CHRW, (.33),  Johnson Controls Inc, JCI, (.18),  Kimberly-Clark Corp, KMB, (.74),  SLM Corp, SLM, (.125)

Major US Stock Movers After Hours

Guidewire gained 11% after hours as it announces it sees Q1 revenues ahead of the expectations

FedEx announces Q1 EPS is seen falling, for the first time since 2009, citing the slower economy, and the stock slipped 4% after hours on the news

Francesca Holding’s fell 4% as it detailed that its CEO is to retire and despite lifting its full year outlook

US Market News

Mark Zuckerberg responds to talk and states that he will not sell shares for at least one year

3M has pulled out of its planned $550m takeover of Avery Denison over antitrust concerns

Apple is in the news as hackers have published long lists of users information online

Hartford agrees to sell its retirement business for $400m

Overnight Market News

Australia’s GDP gained 0.6%, just under the forecasts of 0.7% seen

Cathay Pacific responds to international pressure and announces that it will no longer carry shark fin cargo on its flights, as the huge Asian demand is threatening global populations

i-Cable Communications gained a hefty 40% today on talk that it is to be awarded a free TV license

Bank of Japan board member Miyao states that the risk of a prolonged global slowdown is increasing

FX Summary

The euro is once again the major FX focus ahead of the ECB meeting tomorrow, with the currency down in the past couple of days as the seemingly standard cycle once again occurs, of market pricing in significant news ahead of a Eurozone meeting, to usually end up disappointed

Commodity Summary

Wheat prices have come off for the fourth day in a row, as Russian supply is helping to cool the recent record highs

Economic Data Due

09:00 Eurozone August PMI Services, 47.5 exp. 47.4 previous

09:30 UK August PMI Services, 51.3 exp. 51.0 previous

10:00 Eurozone July Retail Sales, -0.2% exp. 0.1% previous

14:00 Canada Bank of Canada Rate Announcement, 1.0% exp. 1.0% previous

Economic Events

Van Rompuy meets Hollande in Paris