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

Cantor Opening Call

UK Corporate Announcements

Whitbread details that total sales gained 14.3% and that the environment remains challenging, but stays on track to meet its full year targets
Domino Printing states that it remains optimistic about its prospects as full year pre-tax profit fell 6% to £53.9m
Carpetright maintains its full year targets, as it details H1 underlying pre-tax profit of £4.5m from £1.4m
IG Group announces H1 total revenues of £169m down 14% and states that short term trading continues to be subdued and H2 revenues will be in line if recent levels persist
Ashtead Group reports Q2 revenues of £355m from £306m and a pre-tax profit of £79.3m up from £50.6m and now sees its full year ahead of the earlier expectations
Asos states that it remains positive in its outlook, and that it continues to trade in line with the expectations
Victrex announces full year revenues of £219.8m up 2% and an EPS of 85.7p

UK Market News

HSBC details that it is to pay $1.92bn to settle the US money laundering probe and take further action to strengthen its compliance policies
Mervyn King stated yesterday that G20 nations need to do more to address global imbalances and warns countries may use exchange rates as a key monetary policy tool
Man Group details that Manny Roman will replace Peter Clarke as CEO in February as its largest fund has under-performed in recent months, and as Man Group’s share price has lost 40% in 2012
The UK sells £3.25bn in Bonds at 10:30

FTSE 100 Movers

UK Analyst Upgrades

UK Analyst Cuts

Major European Companies Reporting

European Market Summary

Mario Monti responds to the nerves yesterday and states that the markets should not fear the political developments in Italy
Iberia staff have now cancelled the planned strikes at the carrier ahead of Christmas
Spain sells 12 and 18 month bills at 10:30, and Greece sells €2.125bn in bills at 11:00

Major US Stock Movers After Hours

Stillwater Mining gained 3% as S&P details it will replace JDA Software in its SmallCap 600 index

S&P 500 Companies Reporting

US Market News

President Obama has offered cooperation with all parties, as talks continue to avoid the fiscal cliff
Hewlett Packard feels the need to respond to talk and state that it has had no conversations with Carl Icahn, and was not aware of Icahn owning any shares
Mike Bloomberg is reportedly taking a look at the FT, which may yet be sold off by Pearson
Sales of US American Eagle gold coins have continues to grow in the US, as retail investors on both side of the Atlantic continues to feel reassured by owning physical assets
The US sells its last 234m shares in AIG, and makes a $15bn profit on the rescue
Google has detailed that it has suffered ‘service disruptions’ to its popular gmail service in a number of continents

Overnight Market News

Delta is reportedly moving closer to a deal to buy the 49% stake in Virgin Atlantic from Singapore Airlines and could pay less than $500m, while Richard Branson has offered a £1m bet to BA chairman Willie Walsh that the brand would continue
Nintendo traded down over 4% today, despit announcing its new Wii U

Major Global IPOs Due Today

Economic Data Due

Economic Events

US Trade Balance