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

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UK Corporate Announcements

Ashmore Group announces a pre-tax profit of £243m on revenues of £333m

IG Group states that it sees revenues this year weighted to H2, and that it remains well positioned for future growth and Q1 revenues of £81.5m in line

Betfair reports Q1 revenues gained 13% to £91.6m and states that the strong Q1 was driven by a great summer of sport

Supergroup announces Q1 sales of £59.7m and states that UK sales were resilient, against a backdrop of unseasonal weather conditions, but that it remains on track to meet its expectations

Burberry comes out with a profit warning today stating that the external environment is becoming more challenging, and it continues to tighten its discretionary costs, and now sees its full year profits at the lower end of market expectations

Colefax states that trading has been broadly in line with the expectations

Hilton Food reports an H1 profit of £9m on sales of £543m from £496m and increases its interim dividend up 9.7%


UK Market News

Ian McCafferty is due to meet with UK lawmakers today for his appointment hearing to the MPC
Barclays’ new CEO states that he will set a new profitability target in Q1 next year once it has concluded its business review

Qatar is yet to give its decision on the updated moves by Glencore for Xstrata

The Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors suggest that the UK housing market remains sluggish, as its survey falls to -9 from -4

BATM Advanced Comms announces that its application for a joint listing on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange have been approved

Vodafone, 02, Everything Everywhere and Three have signed an accord to prevent legal action for a month while they continue talks on the rollout for 4G services in the UK

The Olympic and Paralympic celebrations in the Mall yesterday keep the Olympic spirit going for at least one more day in London, Andy Murray could not attend as he played in the final of the US Open yesterday where he became the first British tennis major winner for 76 years, beating Djokovic in 5 sets, seemingly getting a major boost from his Olympic gold, as well as his recent appointment of Lendl as coach

The FT states that the UK government will ‘very carefully’ review the performance of G4S

The UK is to sell £1.25bn of 2034 bonds at 10:30


UK Analyst Upgrades

Barratt Developments, Bovis Homes Rated New Buy At Jefferies

Bellway, Berkeley, Redrow Rated New Hold At Jefferies

Drax Raised To Buy From Neutral At Goldman

May Gurney Rated New Buy At Liberum, Pt 150P

Persimmon, Taylor Wimpey Rated New Buy At Jefferies


UK Analyst Cuts

Computacenter Cut To Neutral Vs Buy At Goldman

Taylor Wimpey Cut To Neutral Vs Buy At Goldman


UK Insider Buying

Imperial Tobacco Group, (IMT), 1 insider(s) bought 437 shares, £22.7


UK Insider Selling

Bg Group Plc, (BG/), 2 insider(s) sold 72,998 shares, £12.69

Barclays Plc, (BARC),  insider(s) sold 67,193 shares, £2.08

Low & Bonar Plc, (LWB),  insider(s) sold 118,651 shares, £0.55


Major European Companies Reporting

Ashmore Group PLC, R, 0.235


European Market Summary

Bernard Arnault’s statement yesterday that his move to seek Belgian citizenship was not a plan to avoid French tax meant little to some, as local papers run headlines such as ‘Get lost, rich bastard’ as the socialist president Hollande gains support for his moves to increase tax for the super rich

Mario Monti has stated that growth in Italy will return in 2013 thanks to the decline in interest rates
Greece is due to sell bills today


S&P 500 Companies Reporting

Campbell Soup Co, Q4, 0.379

S&P 500 Ex Dividends (gross):-  Ingersoll-Rand PLC, IR, (.16),  T Rowe Price Group Inc, TROW, (.34)


Major US Stock Movers After Hours

Casey’s announced a solid Q1 after hours and gained 4% on the news

The largest faller was Navidea which fell a hefty 35% as it fails to win FDA approval for its Lmyphoseek treatment

General Growth Properties gained a little after hours as it rejects plans from a major shareholder to put itself up for sale

Majesco fell over 10% as interactive products developer details it now sees revenues at the lower end of the expected range


US Market News

The US details that it is to sell 553m AIG shares at $32.50, against the close yesterday at $33.30
Bloomberg details on how some contrarians are concerns by the record dividend payouts at technology firms, suggesting they are running out of ways to invest the cash PC and software makers were the largest contributors to the 14% gain in the S&P 500 this year

While Citigroup states that it sees the S&P 500 gaining a further 12% through the end of 2012 buoyed by improvements in capital investments and industrial production, a move which would take it past its all time high at 1,565 posted in October 2007

Zynga’s chief marketi9ng and revenue officer has resigned, as the exodus continues as its share price falls, since its recent IPO, reduce the incentive for senior executives to remain at the online games developer

Groupon’s shares have now fallen 80% from the IPO price, with some who look at the put call ratios suggesting a possible base forming

Cosmetic’s group Coty has delayed plans for a $700m IPO, which had been set to be one of the largest consumer rtail listings this year

News Corp’s HarperCollins has now reached an agreement with Amazon on lower prices for e-book’s, after pressure from US authorities that it, CBS, Lagardere and Apple had conspired to keep the prices of e-book’s artificially high


Overnight Market News

Asian markets have come off and on some short term profit taking after the relief rally on the back of the ECB meeting last week

Panasonic fell after Moody’s cuts its credit ratings to two levels to Baa1

Japan Airlines is seen trading around 6% above its IPO price in the grey market it officially starts trading on September 19th

Japan’s Financial Services Minister has reportedly committed suicide

Speculation is mounting in China that Vice President Xi JinPing’s health is in question as he has not been seen in public for a week, currently he is the leading candidate to replace Hu Jintao in the leadership change, which only occurs once a decade


FX Summary

The dollar has come off against most currencies today ahead of the FOMC meeting on Thursday as talk continues of some form of QEIII ahead

While the Canadian dollar is up at a one year high as its central bank stated last week that interest rate increases ‘may become appropriate’


Commodity Summary

Copper has come off the most in a couple of weeks, after data suggests that demand was slowing in its largest market, China, with prices off 1% at one stage


Economic Data Due

00:01 UK August RICS House Price Balance, -22% exp. -24% previous

09:30 UK July Visible Trade Balance, -$9,000 exp. -$10,229 previous

13:30 US July Trade Balance, -$44.5bn exp. -$42.9bn previous

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