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

UK Corporate Announcements

IPF states that it is on track to perform well in 2012 and that its growth strategy is building momentum

Speedy Hire states that it is trading in line with the forecasts but that the market conditions remain challenging

888 states that Q4 has started positively and sees full year EBITDA significantly ahead of the market forecasts

Caretech states that it sees its full year trading in line

Xstrata states that lower prices have had a negative impact and offers no update on Glencore

UK Market News

Rosneft still appears to be the most likely acquire of BP’s stake in TNK BP

The Bank of England’s Paul Tucker is due to give a press conference at 10:15 at the BBA conference, and after the MPC minutes are released this morning

The BBA is also in the news on reports that it may consider new rules were bankers could be barred from the industry if they ‘misbehave’

Shire Pharm gained a little yesterday on some rumours on possible M&A activity

RBS stays in the news after reports that the FSA has put some pressure on the bank to sell its US retail bank and RBS details today that it has exited the UK government’s asset protection scheme, effective from tomorrow

Gatwick states that no new runway will be built before 2019

Cable & Wireless Comms announces that it is in talks with Citic Re on the sale of its stake in CTM

FTSE 100 Ex dividends (net): BAE Systems PLC, BA/, (7.80), Capital Shopping Centres Group PLC, CSCG, (5g)

Estimated FTSE 100 Dividend Impact: 1.1 points

FTSE 250 Ex dividends (net): Close Brothers Group PLC, CBG, (27.50),  F&C Commercial Property Trust Ltd, FCPT, (0.5g),  NB Global Floating Rate Income Fund Ltd, NBLS, (1.21),  Spectris PLC, SXS, (13.50),  Ted Baker PLC, TED, (7.90)

FTSE Small Share Ex dividends (net): Aberdeen Asian Smaller Companies Investment Trust PLC, AAS, (3),  Aberdeen Asian Smaller Companies Investment Trust PLC, AAS, (9.50),  British Polythene Industries PLC, BPI, (4.20),  Henderson EuroTrust PLC, HNE, (11.50),  Mears Group PLC, MER, (2.30),  Ricardo PLC, RCDO, (8.70),  S&U PLC, SUS, (12),  TT electronics PLC, TTG, (1.50),  Wilmington Group PLC, WIL, (3.50)

UK Analyst Upgrades

Buy Kingfisher, Citi Says After Analyst Day

Derwent London Raised To Neutral From Underperform At Exane

Electrocomponents Raised To Sector Perform Vs Underperform: Rbc

Imagination Technologies Raised To Hold From Sell At Liberum

UK Analyst Cuts

Caretech Rated New Buy At Panmure, Pt 230P

N Brown Pt Raised 19% To 280P At Exane; Kept At Underperform

Tesco Raised To Buy Vs Neutral At Ubs

UK Insider Buying

Steppe Cement Ltd, (STCM), 1 insider(s) bought 650,000 shares, £0.25

Smiths Group Plc, (SMIN), 1 insider(s) bought 8,996 shares, £10.48

Morgan Crucible Compa, (MGCR), 1 insider(s) bought 10,000 shares, £2.23

Major European Companies Reporting

ASML Holding NV, Q3, 0.671,  Ferrovial SA, Q3, 0,  Getinge AB, Q3, 2.232,  Investor AB, Q3, 0,  SKF AB, Q3, 2.849,  TeliaSonera AB, Q3, 1.116,  Wartsila OYJ Abp, Q3, 0.368

European Market Summary

Spain has avoided being downgraded to junk status by Moody’s, for now, as the agency keeps it at Baa3 citing the support from the ECB as a major factor, but keeps a negative outlook

ASML announces that it has acquired Cymer for €1.95bn in cash and stock

TeliaSonera announces a Q3 net income of Sek4.8bn largely in line with the forecasts

Local press writes that Greek PM is coming under increasing pressure from his coalition partners to press back on international lender demands

The board of Akzo Nobel is due to meet today to discuss the leave of absence of its chief

SocGen has been ordered to suspend some of its private banking operations in Japan after being criticised for ‘serious violations’

The chairman of the Deutsche Boerse has appealed to politicians to reconsider plans for a transaction tax stating that it would punish financial market players without proof that it would be effective in stopping bank failures

Germany is due to sell €1.5bn notes at 11:30, and Portugal sells bills also at 11:30

S&P 500 Companies Reporting

Abbott Laboratories, Q3, 1.28,  American Express Co, Q3, 1.083,  Amphenol Corp, Q3, 0.89,  Bank of America Corp, Q3, 0.157,  Bank of New York Mellon Corp/The, Q3, 0.545,  BlackRock Inc, Q3, 3.288,  Comerica Inc, Q3, 0.66,  Dover Corp, Q3, 1.283,  eBay Inc, Q3, 0.545,  Halliburton Co, Q3, 0.673,  Lam Research Corp, Q1, 0.405,  M&T Bank Corp, Q3, 1.86,  Noble Corp, Q3, 0.505,  Northern Trust Corp, Q3, 0.739,  PepsiCo Inc, Q3, 1.161,  Quest Diagnostics Inc, Q3, 1.179,  SLM Corp, Q3, 0.54,  St Jude Medical Inc, Q3, 0.811,  Stanley Black & Decker Inc, Q3, 1.45,  Stryker Corp, Q3, 0.986,  Textron Inc, Q3, 0.513,  US Bancorp, Q3, 0.734,  Xilinx Inc, Q2, 0.408

S&P 500 Ex Dividends (gross):- PerkinElmer Inc, PKI, (.07), Procter & Gamble Co/The, PG*, (.562)

Major US Stock Movers After Hours

Intel stated that it remains cautious on new orders and lowers the mid point of its revenue forecasts for Q4, it came off around 3% after hours

Manhattan Associates gained 10% after hours as it announced it was lifting its full year outlook buoyed by additional software licensing

Fortinet was amongst the major movers off 17% as the network security solutions provider announced Q3 EPS largely in line, but forecasts a weaker Q4, and details that its CFO is to leave this week, as he moves to join Yahoo

Apollo Group the college group announces  forecasts for 2013 under the forecasts and came off 9% after hours

US Market News

In the latest Presidential debate President Obama responded to his own critics and was more critical of the statements made by Romney during the debate, and early polls suggest the more active stance gained audience approval

Citigroup announces that it has ousted its chief Vikram Pandit after concluding that mismanagement of operations has caused setbacks with regulators, Mooday’s has cut its outlook to negative on the stock on the news, but confirms the current rating

Jefferies has had its rating downgraded to just one level above junk by Moody’s after concerns that it may struggle to manage its risks after recent expansions

EU authorities have warned Google that it needs to amend its privacy policies or risk significant fines

Rupert Murdhoch used the 40% voting stake he controls to remain as chairman, excluding the stake voters had overwhelmingly voted for an independent chairman

Overnight Market News

Bloomberg suggests that Diageo is in talks to take a 20% stake in Indian based United Spirits

Mitsubishi UFJ analyst Brendan Brown doesn’t hold back at a Bloomberg conference where he states that ‘the most likely way (QE) will end is going to be through some sort of eventual equity market crash, a return to a Roosevelt-type recession and popular revulsion against the whole history of Federal Reserve monetary management’

FX Summary

The euro has moved up to a monthly high on speculation that Spain is set to ask for some form of additional financial assistance

Jim O’Neill states that the leaders of the emerging markets are moving closer towards establishing a development bank of their own, if movement at institutions like the IMF and World Bank do not shift voting power away from the developed economies

Commodity Summary

BHP states that the China destocking cycle has run its course and that iron ore is more stable

Economic Data Due

09:30 UK Bank of England Minutes

09:30 UK August ILO Unemployment, 8.1% exp. 8.1% previous

13:30 US September Housing Starts, 770k exp. 750k previous

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