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

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UK Corporate Announcements

John Wood Group states that conditions in energy markets remain favourable  and that it stays confident of achieving its full year performance

Kcom announces that it has performed in line with the expectations

UK Market News

In UK politics Conservative Party Chairman Grant Shapps is being investigated by the advertising watchdog for posing as a web guru named Michael Green to sell get rich quick schemes on the internet

Boris Johnson has called the government ‘blind’ on its inaction on London’s airport capacity crunch

The FT suggests that Redrow has lifted his offer on the housebuilding group

RBS details that it has suspended a trader who may have attempted to manipulate the Singapore dollar swap offer rate, increasing concerns the Libor scandal could spread to additional areas

Luxury home sellers in London have seen a cooling of interest in recent weeks as the ‘Billionaire bashing’ increases and as high profile house purchases are becoming headline making news events in themselves

UK Analyst Upgrades

Hunting Rated New Buy At Deutsche Bank; Pt 1100P

Petrofac Rated New Hold At Deutsche Bank; Pt 1600P

Wood Group Rated New Hold At Deutsche Bank; Pt 900P

UK Analyst Cuts

Aveva Cut To Hold From Buy At Berenberg

Great Portland Cut To Neutral From Conviction Buy At Goldman

Icap Added To Least Preferred Diversified Financial Shrs At Ubs

Land Securities Cut To Neutral From Buy At Goldman

Sage Cut To Hold From Buy At Berenberg

UK Insider Buying

Eleco Plc, (ELCO), 1 insider(s) bought 5,9574 shares, £0.08

Halfords Group Plc, (HFD), 1 insider(s) bought 164,056 shares, £3.02

Sutton Harbour Holdin, (SUH), 1 insider(s) bought 8,000 shares, £0.24

Tesco Plc, (TSCO), 1 insider(s) bought 16,423 shares, £3.32

European Market Summary

Spain stays in focus as its central bank governor states that extra measures are needed to meet the full year deficit targets

Russia is reportedly looking at allowing foreign oil groups access to production and become co-owners of licenses on Arctic oil drilling

S&P 500 Companies Reporting

Constellation Brands Inc, Q2, 0.539

S&P 500 Ex Dividends (gross):- Darden Restaurants Inc, DRI, (.50),  Gap Inc/The, GPS, (.125),  General Mills Inc, GIS, (.33),  Intuit Inc, INTU, (.17),  Lincoln National Corp, LNC, (.08),  Mastercard Inc, 765486Z, (.30),  Mastercard Inc, MA, (.30),  Verizon Communications Inc, VZ, (.515)

Major US Stock Movers After Hours

Zynga fell over 18% after hours as it announces it was cutting its full year targets after citing lower demand from gamers

Datalink also fell over 15% after hours as it cut its outlook for Q3 citing concerns amongst its customers on making large capital outlays

Medicines Co fell 4% as it detailed it was ending Phase trial of a new treatment on safety concerns

US Market News

Facebook attempts to counter some of the recent IPO criticisms by detailing that it now has topped 1bn users accessing its site at least once a month

Sprint Nextel is reportedly looking at a counter offer for MetroPCS, ahead of interest from Deutsche Telekom

The WSJ suggests that the Fed is looking to keep open its stance of keeping rates lower but tie those assurances to what is happening in the economy, rather than a specific point on the calendar

United Health announces that it is in talks with Brazil’s AMIL Participacoes

Moody’s warns that it may cuts its rating on HP following its recent outlook

Morgan Stanley’s chief states that he is looking to cut more jobs and reduce bonus payouts

Dave & Buster’s has pulled its planned IPO citing market conditions

US payrolls will be the focus this afternoon and the expectations is that unemployment gained to 8.2% last month from 8.1%

Overnight Market News

Asian markets overall have had a slightly softer session

Oversea Chinese Banking Corp and CIMB Group Holdings are considering bidding for GE’s $1.6bn stake in Bank of Ayudhya in Thailand

Woolworths in Australia is reportedly looking to spin off AUS$ 1.41bn of its properties into a REIT in order to boost shareholder returns

The NSE of India announces that it is investigating how a ‘freak trade’ caused its Nifty Fifty index to fall as much as 16%

Samsung announces a Q3 $7.3bn profit but states that it expects this quarter to be tougher

Toyota details that sales in China fell by 40% in September from the same amount last year, citing the ongoing territorial disputes

Australia’s Secretary to the Treasury responds to recent statements and states that talk of the mining industry’s demise were ‘greatly exaggerated’

FX Summary

The yen has rallied a touch as the Bank of Japan holds off from adding to stimulus

The Canadian dollar gained a little yesterday as the deputy governor of the Bank of Canada states that they would withdraw monetary stimulus as and when the nations economy was to recover

Commodity Summary

The UN has stated that global food prices are expected to stay high over the next six months, citing the drought conditions in much of the US recently, and as Russia cuts grain supplies

Gold has continued its recent chart breakout and has pushed on to its highest level for some 11 months, as the inflation hedge remains a favourite amongst investors

Economic Data Due

11:00 German August Factory Orders, -0.3% exp. 0.5% previous

13:30 US September Unemployment Rate, 7.3% exp. 7.3% previous

13:30 US September Change in Non Farm Payrolls, 111k exp. 96k previous

13:30 US September Unemployment Rate 8.2% exp. 8.1% previous

Economic Events

Fed’s Bullard Speaks in Tennessee

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