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

WH Smith announces full year sales have fallen 2% to £1.24bn with same store sales off 5% and details a full year pre-tax profit of £102m just ahead of the expectations of £100m seen

Burberry Group details H1 total revenues of £883m and details that it has now reached a deal with Interparfums to take over Perfums at end March 2013

Ashmore Group reports Assets Under Management gained 6.8% to $68bn and that it is continuing to perform in line with the forecasts

Greggs announces it stays cautious on the economic outlook as it details same store sales fell 2.6% in the 14 weeks to October 6th and sees key ingredient prices gaining again in Q1 2013

Sepura states that it has had a strong H1 trading performance

Kenmare Resources that China demand growth has subdued and that the outlook was affected by softer markets for Titanium

UK Market News

As expected the proposed BAE Systems EADS deal walked into too many political hurdles and Berlin blocked the move officially yesterday evening and both parties confirm that they are terminating merger talks

The Bank of England’s Weale has reportedly stated that the UK economy could post a triple recession

First Group may yet end up with a part of the West Coast franchise as details suggest that allowing Virgin to have an extension on the contract while they re-run the auction is ‘problematic’ and on concerns that without such an extension Virgin could exit UK rail

RBS details today that it is pricing its Direct Line (DLG) IPO at £1.75/share valuing the unit at £2.63bn, and would raise £787m, after initial wide expectations of 160-195p, RBS would need to sell its remaining stake in the unit by the end of 2014, conditional trading starts today

UK Analyst Upgrades

Arm Holdings Adr Rated New Neutral At JP Morgan

Randgold Resources Raised To Add From Hold At Numis

UK Analyst Cuts

Centamin Egypt Cut To Add From Buy At Numis

Mitie Cut To Hold From Buy At Jefferies

Petropavlovsk Cut To Hold From Add At Numis

William Morrison Cut To Neutral Vs Outperform At Credit Suisse

UK Insider Buying

Avanti Communications G, (AVN), 3 insider(s) bought 18,300 shares, £2.97

Batm Advanced Communic, (BVC), 1 insider(s) bought 139,686 shares, £0.16

Cls Holdings Plc, (CLI), 2 insider(s) bought 15,359 shares, £7.17

Diageo Plc, (DGE), 1 insider(s) bought 468 shares, £17.68

Goldplat Plc, (GDP), 1 insider(s) bought 200,000 shares, £0.16

Havelock Europa Plc, (HVE), 1 insider(s) bought 64,958 shares, £0.15

UK Insider Selling

Abcam Plc, (ABC), 1 insider(s) sold 3,100 shares, £3.99

Batm Advanced Communic, (BVC),  insider(s) sold 139,686 shares, £0.16

Domino’s Pizza Group Pl, (DOM), 2 insider(s) sold 2,065,521 shares, £5.20

Hays Plc, (HAS),  insider(s) sold 1,281,828 shares, £0.80

European Market Summary

S&P has cut Spain’s credit rating down to BBB- just ahead of junk status as it cites the deepening recession which would limit the government’s options and perhaps even more significantly cuts its short term sovereign level to A3 from A2
ING agrees to sell its Malaysian unit to AIA Group for $1.7bn

Lagarde has stated that Greece does require more time to meet targets ahead of the G7 meeting today

The UBS trial continues with reports today detailing how an internal UBS investigation into Adoboli did not look at the extent to which other traders were complicit, as it did not review their communications or investigate their actions

Turkish fighter jets escorted a Moscow to Syria civil passenger plane  to land in Turkey yesterday after fears it was carrying cargo banned by civil aviation authority rules, later reports detailed that 12 ‘giant crates’ of equipment destined to the Syrian armed forces were part of the cargo, as the Russian authorities continue to find ways to support the Syrian regime

S&P 500 Companies Reporting

Fastenal Co, Q3, 0.373,  Safeway Inc, Q3, 0.429

S&P 500 Ex Dividends (gross):- Abbott Laboratories, ABT, (.51),  Chesapeake Energy Corp, CHK, (.0875),  ConocoPhillips, COP, (.66),  Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc, FCX, (.3125),  Lennar Corp, LEN, (.04),  Lennar Corp, LEN/B, (.04),  Phillips 66, PSX, (.25),  SAIC Inc, SAI, (.12)

Major US Stock Movers After Hours

Voxx International came off 8% after hours as it announces lower Q2 sales and cuts its full year forecasts

Ruby Tuesday fell over 7% in late trading when it reported Q2 EPS of 5c/share missing the forecasts, but did confirm its full year targets

US Market News

Realoy Holdings the real estate brokerage has raised $1.08bn in its IPO, at the upper end of the proposed range as US property continues to see gains following QEIII

The WSJ suggests that Douglas Braunstein may step down as CFO at JP Morgan and take a different role

Coca Cola is reportedly in talks to take a stake in Spotify as it is keen to use the streaming music site as a platform to connect with the traditionally tough demographic of 15-25 year olds

Overnight Market News

G7 Ministers meet in Tokyo today, while the Japanese PM states that China and Japan were the second and third largest economies in the world and the denting of trade ties over the disputed islands was hurting both economies and he calls for talks on the issue

The Bank of Korea has cut its key interest rate to 2.75% as expected

Lenovo has now officially taken the top spot as the world’s largest HP to become the largest PC seller in the world, at least by Gartner, as IDC still has HP shipping marginally more PCs in Q3

The IMF has felt the need to warn that the larger and increasing government bond holdings in Japanese banks was leaving them vulnerable

A Credit Suisse reports suggests that the booming middle class in China could lift the country ahead of Japan in terms of household assets by 2017

Major Global IPOs Due Today

Workday Inc, (WDAY), 22.75m, USD 21 – 24

FX Summary

The Dollar Index moved up to monthly highs following the Spain downgrade

The yuan has gained above $6.28 for the first time since 1993 after the central bank lifted the fixing rate 0.09% and authorities have urged local authorities to spend more money on public transport and to focus on reducing pollution

Commodity Summary

Bloomberg details how lead was the best performing industrial metal in Q3, and how analysts expect strength ahead as mine expansions continue to slow despite the record demand

Economic Data Due

13:30 US August Trade Balance, -$44.0bn exp. -$42.0bn previous

13:30 US Initial Jobless Claims, 365k exp. 328k previous

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