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23 October 2012

UK Corporate Announcements

Whitbread announces H1 underlying operating profit of £193.4m gained 11% and total sales gained 14%

Laird states that it remains confident on its full year expectations and remains well placed

Sanderson states that it sees its trading results slightly ahead of the market forecasts

Premier Foods keeps its full year forecasts and states that the economic trading environment remains challenging

ARM Holdings announces Q3 revenues of $227m and a pre-tax profit of £55.3m and sees Q4 revenues coming in line

Virgin Media reports Q3 revenues of £1.03bn in line with the forecasts, and a Q3 operating profit of £423m up 6.1%

Mulberry warns that it sees its full year results under the expectations

CSR reports Q4 revenues of $287m and sees Q4 between $235-255m and underlying operating profit of $32.2 from $24.3m

UK Market News

Alternative Networks announces that it has received an approach, but calls it highly preliminary and rejects the move

Mervyn King speaks in Wales today

The FT details that shareholders of BAE are calling for the resignation of its chairman following the recent high profile failure of talks with EADS

Morgan Crucible stays in the business press as reports continue on possible M&A activity

The Independent details how Trinity Mirror is being named in two separate phone hacking cases, the focus until now has predominantly been on News Corp titles, also the group is in the news after Frankie Boyle won £50,000 in damages in the High Court yesterday after the Daily Mirror incorrectly labelled him as racist in a story last July

Megafon details that it has postponed plans for a road show of its planned London IPO

The FT details how Vodafone is looking to trial an international mobile money transfer service

UK Analyst Upgrades

Tate & Lyle Named a Most Preferred Stock at Citi

UK Analyst Cuts

Aggreko Removed From UBS’s European Key Call List

Redrow Cut To Neutral Vs Buy At Ubs

UK Insider Buying

Devro Plc, (DVO), 1 insider(s) bought 12,594 shares, £3.18

Cls Holdings Plc, (CLI), 1 insider(s) bought 2,395 shares, £7.1

UK Insider Selling

Travis Perkins Plc, (TPK), 1 insider(s) sold 10,000 shares, £11.05

Hargreaves Lansdown Plc, (HL/),  insider(s) sold 10,000 shares, £7.5

Renishaw Plc, (RSW),  insider(s) sold 10,000 shares, £0.17

Major European Companies Reporting

Euro, KPN, Mobistar, Alfa Laval, Swedbank, Norsk Hydro, Enagas, STMicro

European Market Summary

Moody’s details that it has cut its stance on five Spanish regions, including Catalonia, and maintains five others

C&C today guides its full year operating profit to the lower end of the previous range

Axel Springer responds to talk and states that it is not considering the purchase of Monster Worldwide

Bayer responds to reports and states that it is not part of a chlorine cartel probe in Brazil

Leoni has lowered its full year forecasts stating that it was unlikely to reach its full year margin goals

Spain sells 3 and 6 month bills at 10:30

Major US Stock Movers After Hours

Yahoo gained 5% after hours when it announced results at the upper end of the expectations, citing search ad gains

OpenTable softened after hours as it had gained on talk of possible interest from Yahoo, but Yahoo then stated that it is not interested in making smaller acquisitions

Volterra Semiconductor fell over 13% as it announces a Q3 EPS under the forecasts

US Market News

United Technologies, Whirlpool, Coach, 3M, UPS, Facebook, and Netflix and Broadcom are amongst the US companies reporting today

Texas Instruments sagged just a touch in late trading as it announced Q4 numbers in line to just under the forecasts, citing resellers cutting inventories

Lance Armstrong stays in the news as SCA Promotions details it is to ask him to repay the $7.5m bonus it paid him for winning the 2004 Tour de France

US home prices gained by 1.3% in Q3, the largest quarterly gain since 2006

Overnight Market News

FIL Ltd, which is the holding company of the Fidelity group of companies is suing Fidelity International group for using the Fidelity name in Hong Kong without its permission

China details that foreign vessel operators are to be banned from sailing on its domestic waterways, including the Yangtzee as domestic operators struggle amid the global slowdown, the ban takes effect from January 1st

Acer fell over 5% as the second largest computer maker in Asia announced Q3 sales under the forecasts

Japan’s justice minister has resigned after criticisms that he attended a high profile gangsters wedding and for accepting ‘donations’ from a foreign run company

Major Global IPOs Due Today

Hess AG, 2.3m €15.5-18.5

FX Summary

The yen has weakened under 80 against the dollar for the first time this autumn as talks increases that the BOJ will use increasing stimulus measures

The Canadian dollar has moved down to its lowest level for a couple of months on the expectation that the BOJ will put less focus on increasing of interest rates at the announcement due later today

Commodity Summary

The WSJ suggests that Goldman held talks to spin off its commodity trading units, in order to avoid any increased regulations on its trading

A former director of the IEA states that oil could gain to $160 if the Strait of Hormuz was to be blocked

Economic Data Due

09:30 UK September BBA Loans, 30,840, 30,533 previous

14:00 Bank of Canada Rate Announcement

15:00 Eurozone October Consumer Confidence, -25.9 exp. -25.9 previous