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

UK Corporate Announcements

Lloyds announces underlying pre-tax profit gained 148% and details that it is taking a further £1bn PPI provision and lowers its full year guidance on the charge

Shell reports a Q3 net income of $7.14bn from $6.98bn, with earnings ex items just ahead of the forecasts

BT reports Q2 revenues of £4.47bn, against estimates of around £4.55bn seen and adjusts its full year sales forecasts as Q2 sales miss their estimates, and details a Q2 pre-tax profit of £608m just ahead of the expectations of around £563m seen

Glencore states that its balance sheet retains ‘unique level of flexibility’ and stays positive on its marketing outlook for the rest of the year

BSkyB reports Q1 operating profit of £310m against forecasts of £300m and states that it is well positioned to execute plans for the year, and details a Q1 client churn rate of 10.9%

Croda announces that trading weakened in September and details an operating profit of £59.7m from £57m

Legal & General states that it sees economic growth in the UK and US below the consensus, but did see record sales ion Q3 and has assets under management above £390bn

Restaurant Group states that it remains on track to meet the full year expectations

UK Market News

The CBI feels that the Bank of England may hold back from further stimulus next week after an increase in Q3 growth, the CBI also lifts its UK economic forecasts for this year and the next

Barclays stays in the news as paper’s digest yesterday’s results and the news that US regulators have threatened to fine it as much as $470m over allegations it manipulated the Californian electricity markets

The FT suggests that Comet could move into administration as early as today

A paper co-written by David Miles states that global central bank stimulus has not been significant enough to fully offset the impact of the banking crisis

The UK is due to sell £900m in 2047 bonds at 10:30

UK Analyst Upgrades

Domino’s Pizza Raised To Buy From Neutral At Goldman

Grafton Group Raised To Neutral From Sell At Goldman

Kingspan Group Raised To Buy From Neutral At Goldman

Next Raised To Hold From Sell At Socgen

Oxford Catalysts Rated New Buy At Numis, Pt 177P

Sabmiller Pt Raised To 2,850P Vs 2,600P At Morgan Stanley

UK Analyst Cuts

Bg Group Pt Cut To 1,300P Vs 1,450P At Morgan Stanley

Barratt Developments Cut To Neutral From Buy At Goldman Sachs

Mondi Cut To Neutral From Outperform At Credit Suisse

UK Insider Buying

F&C Asset Management Plc, (FCAM), 1 insider(s) bought 30,000 shares, £0.95

UK Insider Selling

Pearson Plc, (PSON), 1 insider(s) sold 50,000 shares, £12.44

Major European Companies Reporting

BG Group PLC, Q3, 0.329,  British Sky Broadcasting Group PLC, Q1, 0.13,  BT Group PLC, S1, 0,  Croda International PLC, Q3, 0,  Lloyds Banking Group PLC, Q3, 0.008,  Royal Dutch Shell PLC, Q3, 1.007,  Smith & Nephew PLC, Q3, 0.163,  TDC A/S, Q3, 0.971,  TGS Nopec Geophysical Co ASA, Q3, 0.699,  Wereldhave NV, Q3, 0.96

European Market Summary

Trading in European markets may be more subdued today on the All Saints Day Public Holiday, although most of the major European markets are open as normal 

The former deputy MD at the IMF John Lipsky states that the process to rescue Greece ‘could have been handled so much better’

Ferrovial details that China’s SWF has taken a 10% stake in the holding company of London Heathrow

Sweden is due to sell Inflation linked bonds at 11:03

Major US Stock Movers After Hours

Visa gained around 1% after hours as it announced a Q4 EPS largely in line, and authorises a $1.5bn share buyback

S&P 500 Companies Reporting

AGL Resources Inc, Q3, 0.213,  American International Group Inc, Q3, 0.874,  AmerisourceBergen Corp, Q4, 0.679,  Apache Corp, Q3, 2.244,  Apartment Investment & Management Co, Q3, 0.429,  Cablevision Systems Corp, Q3, 0.161,  Chesapeake Energy Corp, Q3, 0.103,  Cigna Corp, Q3, 1.359,  Edison International, Q3, 1,  Ensco PLC, Q3, 1.296,  Estee Lauder Cos Inc/The, Q1, 0.768,  Exxon Mobil Corp, Q3, 1.964,  FirstEnergy Corp, Q3, 1.06,  Fluor Corp, Q3, 0.965,  Hartford Financial Services Group Inc, Q3, 0.831,  Invesco Ltd, Q3, 0.445,  Kellogg Co, Q3, 0.807,  Lincoln National Corp, Q3, 1.033,  Marathon Petroleum Corp, Q3, 3.233,  Newmont Mining Corp, Q3, 0.904,  priceline.com Inc, Q3, 11.829,  Public Service Enterprise Group Inc, Q3, 0.72,  Republic Services Inc, Q3, 0.487,  RR Donnelley & Sons Co, Q3, 0.444,  Scripps Networks Interactive Inc, Q3, 0.744,  Southwestern Energy Co, Q3, 0.328,  Spectra Energy Corp, Q3, 0.307,  Starbucks Corp, Q4, 0.448,  TECO Energy Inc, Q3, 0.378,  Teradata Corp, Q3, 0.665,  Vornado Realty Trust, Q3, 1.16,  Watson Pharmaceuticals Inc, Q3, 1.285,  WPX Energy Inc, Q3, -0.026,  Xylem Inc/NY, Q3, 0.433

US Market News

Disaster Recovery firms are in focus after numerous failings reported for back-up systems to correctly replicate standard day to day systems across many Wall Street firms

The CFTC Commissioner says that swap trading rules will not be finished by November

The FT suggests that early estimates of Sandy to the insurance industry could be around $7-8bn

United Continental Holdings, the largest carrier in the world, announces that it is in talks with Airbus about buying A350’s to replace its older Boeing 747’s

Administrators of MF Global’s UK Subsidiary states that they have recovered around 90% of the funds belonging to its clients and 75% of assets due to creditors

Overnight Market News

Moody’s announces its is reviewing Panasonic’s Baa1 rating, and may downgrade its stance, after its massive restructuring, where it has cut over 38,000 jobs in the past 12 months and Panasonic was limit down overnight, off 19%, as it announced it may post a loss of 765bn, $9.6bn, citing lower consumer demand and restructuring costs

Overnight Sharp has widened the full year net loss to 450bn yen from 250bn yen and takes a 85bn yen restructuring charge

Sony announces a Q2 net loss of 15.5bn yen from the profit of 15.6bn yen and cuts its PC, handheld games and compact camera sales targets

Macau casino revenues gained 3.2% up to a fresh record last month, buoyed by the 8 day Golden Week holiday

Major Global IPOs Due Today

Timbercreek US Multi-Residential Opportunity Fund #1, (0601530D), 2.2444m, CAD 10

Delek Logistics Partners LP, (DKL), 8m, USD 19 – 21

Restoration Hardware Holdings Inc, (0097613Z), 5.16433m, USD 22 – 24

Singulex Inc, (SGLX), 4.375m, USD 15 – 17

Taylor & Martin Group Inc, (TMG), 15m, USD 10 – 12

FX Summary

Panama has been lifted to Baa2 from Baa3 by Moody’s with a stable outlook

The Canadian dollar moved down towards 12 week lows as its GDP data unexpectedly shrank for the first time in six months, down 0.1%

The pound has strengthened a touch after the CBI reported increases expectations that the BofE will hold back from additional monetary stimulus next week

Commodity Summary

Bloomberg details how Threadneedle Investments has a call that copper prices could fall 10% over the next three months on the slowing Chinese demand

Economic Data Due

09:30 UK October PMI Manufacturing, 48.0 exp. 48.4 previous

12:30 US Non Farm Productivity 1.5% exp. 2.2% previous

12:30 US Initial Jobless Claims, 370k exp. 369k previous

14:00 US October Manufacturing ISM, 51.2 exp. 51.5 previous