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

UK Corporate Announcements

Barclays announces a Q3 adjusted pre-tax profit of £1.7bn in line with the forecasts and states that its performance in October was hurt by the challenging markets and subdued volumes and stays cautious on its environment

Next tightens up on its full year sales forecasts seeing a range of £590-620m with full year EPS growth of 10-15%

Antofagasta details that Q3 output of 179,000t from 165,000t citing increased output from its Esperanza Mine

Mondi reports a Q3 underlying operating profit of €135m from €136m and sees sales volumes to prior quarter

St James Place details funds under management of £32.8bn up 6% over the quarter and up 15% from the start of the year

Standard Life details group assets under administration of £211.9bn and its CEO states that it has performed well and stays confident on its outlook

AG Barr states that its talks are ongoing and at an advanced stage

Rugby Estates announces an H1 pre-tax loss of £2.33m from £0.64m and sees shareholder value of 370p to 470p/share

UK Market News

GfK data has UK consumer confidence to a six month low this month to -30 from -28

Lloyds will be eyed after reports that it may yet increase the amount set aside for the mis-selling of insurance and derivative products, possibly as much as £2.9bn, and could hamper government efforts to reduce the state’s stake

Administrators of Manganese Bronze, the London black cab maker, states that it is talking to an encouraging list of parties interested in its rescue

Taylor testifies to the UK Parliamentary Banking Standards Panel at 09:30

FTSE 100 Ex dividends (net): Intertek Group PLC, ITRK, (13), ITV PLC, ITV, (.80) Estimated FTSE 100 Dividend Impact: 0.2 points

FTSE 250 Ex dividends (net): Booker Group PLC, BOK, (.38),  Howden Joinery Group PLC, HWDN, (.30),  Laird PLC, LRD, (3.40),  Provident Financial PLC, PFG, (28.80)

FTSE Small Share Ex dividends (net): Bloomsbury Publishing PLC, BMY, (.94),  City Natural Resources High Yield Trust PLC, CYN, (.86),  Development Securities PLC, DSC, (2.40),  Hilton Food Group Ltd, HFG, (3.40),  JPMorgan Claverhouse Investment Trust PLC, JCH, (3.50),  JPMorgan Global Emerging Markets Income Trust Plc, JEMI, (2.15),  Lookers PLC, LOOK, (.80),  Schroder Real Estate Investment Trust Ltd, SREI, (.88)

UK Analyst Upgrades

Imi Plc Rated New Buy At Socgen, Pt 1,080P

GKN Rated New Hold At Socgen, Pt 220P

UK Analyst Cuts

Weir Group Rated New Sell At Socgen, Pt 1,635

Smiths Group Rated New Sell At Socgen, Pt 940P

Wolseley Cut To Underperform From Hold At Jefferies

Major European Companies Reporting

Abertis Infraestructuras SA, Q3, 0.28,  Air France-KLM, Q3, 0.495,  Anheuser-Busch InBev NV, Q3, 1.205,  ArcelorMittal, Q3, -0.122,  Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA, Q3, 0.1,  Barclays PLC, Q3, 0.078,  Chr Hansen Holding A/S, R, 0.937,  Clariant AG, Q3, 0.275,  Continental AG, Q3, 2.354,  Deutsche Lufthansa AG, Q3, 0.73,  Ebro Foods SA, Q3, 0.23,  Fiat Industrial SpA, Q3, 0.32,  Fresenius Medical Care AG & Co KGaA, Q3, 0.724,  Fresenius SE & Co KGaA, Q3, 1.378,  GlaxoSmithKline PLC, Q3, 0.283,  Grifols SA, Q3, 0.23,  Lundin Petroleum AB, Q3, 0.145,  Novo Nordisk A/S, Q3, 9.429,  Orkla ASA, Q3, 0.823,  Pohjola Bank PLC, Q3, 0.186,  Sika AG, Q3, 0,  Total SA, Q3, 1.358

European Market Summary

Euro region finance ministers are due to hold a conference call today on how to fill Greece’s financing gap

Putin is continuing his moves to improve the improve the health of the nation as an anti tobacco law was submitted to Parliament yesterday to ban smoking in public places, and as authorities attempt to halt the decline in its population, which has fallen to143m, down 5m from 1991, around 900,000 are estimated to die each year from Alcohol and tobacco related illnesses

Air France KLM announces a Q3 operating profit of €506m, ahead of the forecasts of around €434m seen, while Lufthansa announces a Q3 operating profit of €648m from €522m

France is to sell bonds at 10:50, and Germany at 11:30

Major US Stock Movers After Hours

Electronic Arts announced a Q2 EPS of $0.15 up from $0.05 last year, largely in line with the forecasts

US Steel reports net sales of $4.65bn from $5.08bn last year and a Q3 diluted EPS of $0.28

S&P 500 Companies Reporting

Allstate Corp/The, Q3, 1.133,  American Tower Corp, Q3, 0.74,  BMC Software Inc, Q2, 0.872,  BorgWarner Inc, Q3, 1.191,  Cameron International Corp, Q3, 0.883,  Clorox Co/The, Q1, 0.956,  Eaton Corp, Q3, 1.088,  Exelon Corp, Q3, 0.718,  First Solar Inc, Q3, 1.075,  Harman International Industries Inc, Q1, 0.784,  Hess Corp, Q3, 1.186,  Iron Mountain Inc, Q3, 0.352,  Mastercard Inc, Q3, 5.904,  McGraw-Hill Cos Inc/The, Q3, 1.306,  MetLife Inc, Q3, 1.282,  Murphy Oil Corp, Q3, 1.198,  NRG Energy Inc, Q3, 0.442,  Phillips 66, Q3, 2.357,  Pioneer Natural Resources Co, Q3, 0.97,  Quanta Services Inc, Q3, 0.387,  Ralph Lauren Corp, Q2, 2.143,  Rowan Cos Plc, Q3, 0.479,  SCANA Corp, Q3, 0.886,  Sealed Air Corp, Q3, 0.31,  Southern Co/The, Q3, 1.129,  Tesoro Corp, Q3, 2.327,  Time Warner Cable Inc, Q3, 1.426,  Unum Group, Q3, 0.765,  Visa Inc, Q4, 1.495,  Wisconsin Energy Corp, Q3, 0.575

US Market News

NYSE details that it does plan to open for normal trading operations today, as does Nasdaq OMX, as the East Coast of the US deals with the aftermath of Sandy, with early estimates suggesting the bill could exceed $20bn, Katrina in comparison was around $110bn so far

Reports suggest it could be a couple of days yet before power is restored to all in the region, while former NYSE Richard Grasso responds to some increasing criticisms stating that having only electronic trading open on the NYSE would have been too volatile and that the closing of all markets for the past two days was ‘the smart choice’

Citigroup details that its office on 111 Wall Street will be ‘out of commission for several weeks’ due to water damage

JFK and Newark airports reopen with a limited service today as carriers start to work through the backlog of delayed and cancelled flights

Disney announces that it is buying LucasFilm for $4.05bn in cash and stock and plans a seventh Stars Wars film in 2015, the first of a new trilogy

Overnight Market News

The Chinese Securities Journal details how 2,493 companies listed an average of a 2% fall in nine month profits to September

South Korea details plans for a $290bn project to build ‘8-City’ a leisure and gaming destination that would be three times the size of Macau

IMG Worldwide states that it has already seen strong interest from US brands to advertise with the main football league in China, after signing a marketing agreement with the league earlier this month

Panasonic announces it now sees a full year net loss of around 765bn yen, citing lower demand for its Viera TVs and as well as additional restructuring costs, against previous forecasts of around a 24.7bn yen loss

Major Global IPOs Due Today

Matrix 2012 Enhanced Short Duration National and Quebec Flow Through LP, (0611974D), 2.5m, CAD 10

Commodity Summary

US refineries have resumed operations as the storm system moves away from the East coast, although oil futures remain relatively muted as traders await more information on the state of local stockpiles

Economic Data Due

00:01 UK October GfK Consumer Confidence, -28 exp. -28 previous

10:00 Eurozone October CPI, 2.5% exp. 2.7% previous

13:45 US October Chicago Purchasing Manager, 51.0 exp. 49.7 previous