MARKET NEWS ROUND UP, UPGRADES & DOWNGRADES COURTESY OF CANTOR INDEX

UK Corporate Announcements

BTG reports an H1 pre-tax profit of £105.3m up from £79.4m and maintains its full year revenue forecasts

Rightmove states that it maintains its full year guidance and expects additional growth ahead in 2013

Spirent states that it sees Q4 underlying revenues similar to last year as it reports Q3 reported operating profit of $25.9m

Tate & Lyle states that it sees a solid full year sales growth in specialty food, as it reports an H1 adjusted pre-tax profit of £179m, on H1 sales of £1.63bn and sees challenging markets in Europe

Land Securities reports an H1 net profit of £131m from £386m on revenues of £303m from £339m

Aviva announces a Q3 operating profit broadly in line with H1 and that trading conditions have remained difficult and that results have been mixed across the group

Reed Elsevier states that trading has been in line with the expectations and states that it has made good progress in its transformation

Schroders nine month pre-tax profit of £266m on net inflows on £5.3bn and expects a slowdown in institutional flows

WM Morrison states that it expects its full year performance to be in line with the expectations

RSA Insurance details net written premiums of £6.2bn and an IGD surplus of £1.2bn and continues to expect good premium growth

Cable & Wireless Comms announces H1 revenues of $1.43bn in line with the estimates, and maintains the guidance it gave with its full year results

Experian reports an H1 pre-tax profit of $76m, on total group revenues of $2.3bn and states it was a strong H1 with revenue growth across all regions, from all business, and continues to see significant opportunities

UK Market News

The FTSE is seen recovering some of yesterday’s losses as the markets took the election result as an opportunity to take some of the solid profits posted in the past six months, and on concerns that the after the US election the day to day political deadlock is set to remain, keeping concerns on the fiscal cliff high on the agenda

IAG is reportedly looking at a possible move for the rest of Vueling that it does not already own

The Times suggests that BDO is in talks with a ‘mid-tier’ competitor about a possible £400m merger, which would be the largest in the accountancy sector for around 10 years

The ONS details that most in the UK have post real income falls over the past five years as salaries have failed to keep up with inflation

The FT writes that UK pension funds are now holding more bonds than equities for the first time since the 1950’s, seen as the start of the ‘cult of equity’

UK Analyst Upgrades

Imagination Raised To Neutral Vs Sell At Ubs

UK Analyst Cuts

Babcock International Cut To Neutral Vs Buy At Ubs

Randgold Resources Cut To Neutral Vs Buy At Bofaml

United Utilities Cut To Neutral From Buy At Nomura

UK Insider Buying

Petroceltic Internation, (PCI), 1 insider(s) bought 140,000 shares, £0.09

Rolls-Royce Holdings Pl, (RR/), 5 insider(s) bought 1,025 shares, £8.85

Xp Power Ltd, (XPP), 1 insider(s) bought 2,500 shares, £10

UK Insider Selling

Filtrona Plc, (FLTR),  insider(s) sold 23,917 shares, £5.8

Wolseley Plc, (WOS), 2 insider(s) sold 19,004 shares, £27.54

Major European Companies Reporting

Adidas AG, Q3, 1.549,  Aegon NV, Q3, 0.075,  Amadeus IT Holding SA, Q3, 0.34,  Arkema SA, Q3, 1.935,  Banque Cantonale Vaudoise, Q3, 0,  BTG PLC, S1, 0.056,  Cable & Wireless Communications PLC, S1, 0,  Coca Cola Hellenic Bottling Co SA, Q3, 0.43,  Commerzbank AG, Q3, 0.014,  Corio NV, Q3, 0.665,  Deutsche Post AG, Q3, 0.313,  Deutsche Telekom AG, Q3, 0.153,  Electrocomponents PLC, S1, 0,  Endesa SA, Q3, 0,  European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co NV, Q3, 0.345,  Experian PLC, S1, 0.41,  Finmeccanica SpA, Q3, 0.051,  HeidelbergCement AG, Q3, 1.642,  KBC Groep NV, Q3, 1.095,  Land Securities Group PLC, S1, 0.173,  Legrand SA, Q3, 0.488,  Nobel Biocare Holding AG, Q3, 0.041,  ProSiebenSat.1 Media AG, Q3, 0.337,  Prysmian SpA, Q3, 0.31,  Repsol SA, Q3, 0.393,  Rhoen Klinikum AG, Q3, 0.217,  SGL Carbon SE, Q3, -0.054,  Siemens AG, R, 6.121,  Skanska AB, Q3, 2.516,  Societe Generale SA, Q3, 0.725,  Sodexo, R, 3.288,  Stada Arzneimittel AG, Q3, 0.554,  Swiss Re AG, Q3, 3.875,  Swisscom AG, Q3, 9.258,  Tate & Lyle PLC, S1, 0.304,  Terna Rete Elettrica Nazionale SpA, Q3, 0,  Tryg A/S, Q3, 8.398

European Market Summary

Greek PM Samaras did manage to secure the voting through of the required austerity budget, and despite the general strike yesterday as large numbers of the population continue to protest against the planned measures

A number of German heavyweights report this morning, Deutsche Post, Deutsche Telekom, Siemens and Commerzbank to name just a few

Peltz states that he believes that Danone is undervalued and that he plans talks with its management

EADS offices in Germany have been raided by German state prosecutors and police
Spain is due to sell bonds at 10:30

Major US Stock Movers After Hours

Activision announces higher than expected EPS after hours yesterday  and also increased its outlook for the key quarter ahead, and gained 2% on the news

Qualcomm gained over 7% as it also detailed better than expected sales numbers, and also guided higher for the full year

Universal Display came off 30% on lower sales but stays optimistic on its longer term outlook despite the ‘temporary slowdown in industry growth’

S&P 500 Companies Reporting

CareFusion Corp, Q1, 0.412,  Dean Foods Co, Q3, 0.282,  Duke Energy Corp, Q3, 1.445,  International Game Technology, Q4, 0.317,  Kohl’s Corp, Q3, 0.866,  Leucadia National Corp, Q3, 0,  Microchip Technology Inc, Q2, 0.478,  Nordstrom Inc, Q3, 0.719,  NVIDIA Corp, Q3, 0.357,  PPL Corp, Q3, 0.668,  Public Storage, Q3, 1.681,  Vulcan Materials Co, Q3, 0.155,  Walt Disney Co/The, Q4, 0.68,  Windstream Corp, Q3, 0.124

US Market News

The Business press naturally focuses on the re-election of President Obama with The Independent winning the best headline with ‘The Tenacity of Hope’ banner as the ‘Audacity of hope’ of President Obama’s first term will need to turn increasingly tenacious over the next four years

CBS the most watched US network announces Q3 profit gained 16%, ahead of the forecasts, citing increased affiliate fees

Defence contractors were amongst the heaviest falls yesterday as the market prices in further defence spending cuts over the next four years

Larry Flynt states that the porn industry may simply move its business to Las Vegas after voters in LA pass a measure requiring adult movie actors to wear condoms during filming

The FT details that under some measures Apple has now moved into a bear trend, having dropped 20% from its all time highs above $700, to the close yesterday at $558

Overnight Market News

Hyundai and Kia are the subject of a US class action lawsuit alleging that the car manufacturers overstated the fuel efficiency on some of their vehicles

In one of his final appearances before handing over power Hu Jintao has stated that China must double per-capita income by 2020 and calls for deeper financial overhauls and more local level democracy

FX Summary

New Zealand’s unemployment rate unexpectedly gained last quarter, moving up to a 13 year high, which saw its currency come off to a two week low on the news

Whereas data in Australia has job creation as unexpectedly strong over the period with the number of people employed gaining by 10,700, from the 15,500 gain in September

Commodity Summary

Analysts suggest there may be a crimp in lead supply in China next year as consumption could gain as much as 9%, buoyed by increased use of lead in lead-acid batteries, while output is currently seen gaining by around 5%

Economic Data Due

12:00 UK MPC Rate Announcement, 0.5% exp. 0.5% previous

12:45 ECB Rate Announcement, 0.75% exp. 0.75% previous

13:30 US September Trade Balance, -$45.0bn exp. -44.4bn previous

13:30 US Weekly Initial Jobless Claims, 374k exp. 363k previous