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

For more research & Technical Analysis from Cantor Index click here to register.

UK Corporate Announcements

CRH details that sales gained 5% with an H1 pre-tax profit of €117m and that the pace of the US growth has tenmpered

Standard Life reports an H1 net income of £254m and an operating profit of £302m up 15% and states that the markets are challenging

John Menzies announces H1 revenues of £988.4m from £1bn and an operating profit of £25m largely flat from last year and states that its expansion plans are on track

Dragon Oil announces an H1 pre-tax profit of $308.9m with revenues up 12% to $588.4m and starts a $200m share buyback programme

Centamin reports a Q2 EBITDA of $54.9m from $59.6m on revenues of $96.8m and maintains its production guidance

SDL announces an H1 pre-tax profit of £16.4m on revenues of £133.6m and sees caution in some of its markets

Latchways states that it remains confident of a successful outcome on the full year

Supergroup announces that its co-founder Theo Karpathios resigns

UK Market News

The FT writes on how the coalition government is expected to announce next month a new initiative to attempt to stimulate the construction sector

The Times highlights how Price Waterhouse Coopers is now the subject of a formal investigation over how it handled its accounting of RSM Tenon

In July measures of newly agreed house sales fell to a four year low, and RICS survey fell to -24 from -22 in June and keeps its three month outlook ‘broadly unchanged’

Standard Chartered’s CEO is due to fly into New York today to attend a hearing on money laundering allegations

UBS details that Jay Merchant has left his position as head of swap trading, he has been in the news as part of the ongoing investigations into alleged Libor rate fixing during his time at Barclays

Lonmin stays in the news as it states that there has been no fresh violence in its South African mines overnight, after 9 have been killed in the recent ‘incidents’, including two policeman

UK Analyst Upgrades

Capital & Counties Rated New Buy At Jefferies, Pt 249P

Elan Raised To Buy Vs Neutral At Ubs

Genel Energy Rated New Buy At Bofaml, Pt 1,200P

ITV Raised To Buy From Neutral At Nomura

Micro Focus Raised To Buy Vs Neutral At Ubs

Persimmon Reinstated Buy at BofAML

UK Analyst Cuts

Pearson Cut To Equalweight Vs Overweight At Morgan Stanley

UK Insider Buying

Norcros Plc, (), 1 insider(s) bought 2,356 shares, £0.11

UK Insider Selling

Fidessa Group Plc, (FDSA), 1 insider(s) sold 742 shares, £14.33

Major European Companies Reporting

Hochtief AG, Q2, 0.996,  GAM Holding AG, S1, 0,  K+S AG, Q2, 0.715,  Merck KGaA, Q2, 1.809,  RWE AG, Q2, 0.65,  Kabel Deutschland Holding AG, Q1, 0.777,  Aker Solutions ASA, Q2, 1.844,  Geberit AG, S1, 0,  Oriflame Cosmetics SA, Q2, 0.511,  Standard Life PLC, S1, 0.085,  Wirecard AG, Q2, 0.16,  Aurubis AG, Q3, 0.955,  Bankia SA, S1, 0,  Galenica AG, S1, 16.78,  AP Moeller – Maersk A/S, S1, 2063.6,  United Internet AG, Q2, 0.13,  Celesio AG, Q2, 0.21,  Salzgitter AG, Q2, 0.483,  Deutsche Euroshop AG, Q2, 0.4,  Schindler Holding AG, S1, 0,  Holmen AB, Q2, 2.749,  Henderson Group PLC, S1, 0.056,  CRH PLC, S1, 0.186

European Market Summary

Bloomberg details on how private equity groups have been seen amassing a sizeable war chest waiting for a possible European fire sale, around €60bn seen, but that so far there has been no major pressure on European banks being forced to sell the assets

Marc Faber states publicly that he will buy European stocks as states that China’s economy will slow considerably

RWE announces that it is to cut an additional 2,400 jobs and details an H1 recurring net profit of €1.67bn just missing the forecasts

S&P 500 Companies Reporting

Estee Lauder Cos Inc/The, Q4, 0.16,  Home Depot Inc/The, Q2, 0.978,  JDS Uniphase Corp, Q4, 0.124,  TJX Cos Inc, Q2, 0.548

S&P 500 Ex Dividends (gross):-  Amgen Inc, AMGN, (.36),  Archer-Daniels-Midland Co, ADM, (.175),  CenterPoint Energy Inc, CNP, (.2025),  (Citigroup Inc),  Marathon Oil Corp, MRO, (.17),  Marathon Petroleum Corp, MPC, (.35),  Microsoft Corp, MSFT, (.20),  MModal Inc, MODL, (100.00),  Southwest Airlines Co, LUV, (.01

Major US Stock Movers After Hours

Envivio was the major market faller after hours, down over 305 as it announces an operations review after detailing a lower than expected Q2 guidance

Summer Infant came off 23% as it cuts its full year outlook citing the unpredictable market

Groupon however will gain much of the headlines with its 19.5% falls after hours as it announced Q2 revenues under the forecasts citing European weakness, despite revenues gaining 45% to $563m, as concerns remain over the longevity of its business model and the valuations used at its relatively recent IPO

US Market News

US trading volumes have sagged to levels not seen since 2008, as the US corporate reporting season continues to wind down and the summer lull continues, the low volumes have also allowed the VIX to drop to its lowest level since summer 2007

Bloomberg writes on how Knight Capital suffered from new rules put in place following the flash crash, where regulators have stated that errors of this kind will not be voided, leaving the trades to settle as normal, hoping market forces would create tougher internal risk procedures, it has also emerged that Knight Capital  a decade ago mistakenly sold 1m of its own shares, and managed then to void the trade

Russel Wassendorf, CEO of Peregrine, has been charged with 31 counts of making false statements to regulators, and if found guilty could receive a sentence of 155 years

Overnight Market News

Asian markets have had a broadly positive session, buoyed by the Bank of Japan meeting minutes which suggested that the central bank is considering additional stimulus measures

The South China Post states that internet fraud was estimated to cost 60m mainland users around $5bn/year and that it was becoming a major hurdle for further online retail business growth

In a similar topic the Hong Kong Exchange has responded to concerns that the incorrect posting of reports yesterday on three stocks, which caused trading to be suspended on the shares, was due to old fashioned human error and not as a result of a malicious hack

FX Summary

The yen came off a little on the Bank of Japan minutes release as it increases expectations for additional stimulus ahead

The pound has stayed softer against the euro relative to its slight gains posted last week, as the markets continue to digest Mervyn King’s comments that the euro debt crisis is still impacting on the UK economy

Commodity Summary

Oil prices have pushed higher in recent days as tension mounts between Israel and Iran

Rubber prices have fallen to a three year low, and fell as much as 3% yesterday to stand down around 22% this year as the global slowdown crimps the demand outlook

Biofuel is expected to come under increasing pressure as calls mount for output levels to be cut as the US program currently uses 40% of its corn output, but as fears of a food crisis mount this corn may need to be diverted

Bloomberg highlights how investors holdings in silver has reached record highs, matching the moves in gold, but highlights how hedge fund optimism is at near term lows, flagging up the divergence between the large speculators and the smaller investors

Economic Data Due

00:01 UK July RICS House Price balance, -22% exp.

06:30 France Q2 GDP -0.2% exp. 0.0% previous

07:00 Germany Q2 GDP  0.1% exp. 0.5% previous

09:30 UK July CPI -0.1% exp. -0.4% previous

10:00 Eurozone Q2 GDP -0.2% exp. 0.0% previous

10:00 Eurozone Zew Survey, 7.3 exp. 21.1 previous

13:30 US July PPI 0.2% exp. 0.15 previous

13:30 US July Advance Retail Sales, 0.3% exp. -0.5% previous

Economic Events

BOJ Releases July Meeting Minutes