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

13 Dec 2012

Cantor Opening Call

UK Corporate Announcements

Sports Direct announces H1 revenues of £1.09bn up 22.5% and an adjusted EBITDA of £163.2m
John Wood Group states that it sees its full year results in line and that the energy markets were largely favourable
Betfair announces an H1 underlying pre-tax profit of £21m, on revenues of £200.6m up 5% and states current trading was in line
HMV details H1 total sales from continuing operations fell 13.5% after a ‘disappointing release scheduled in summer 2012’ and states it will probably breach its covenant in January, with material uncertainties facing the business

UK Market News

The UK is expected to lift its ban on fracking today as it offsets concerns on the damage to the local environment with the need to boost gas production
The Times details how job vacancies are up at three year highs, and employment is up near record highs, as the number of those employed stays at traditionally decent levels, the current austere times are revealed in levels of take home pay which, inflation adjusted, remain significantly under the record highs
BG announces that Chris Finlayson will become its CEO from January, replacing Frank Chapman
The FT suggests that Barclays is looking to cut as many as 2,000 investment banking jobs
The UK is due to sell £1.1bn at 0.125%

FTSE 100 Movers

UK Analyst Upgrades

UK Analyst Cuts

UK Insider Buying

Major European Companies Reporting

European Market Summary

EU Finance Ministers meet again today to discuss Greece and Cyprus, and reportedly they have agreed to cede power to a common bank supervisor
Spain is due to sell bonds at 10:30, Italy sells €3.5bn in bonds at 11:00

Major US Stock Movers After Hours

Harbinger was the largest mover, down over 16% as it announces a secondary common stock offering

S&P 500 Companies Reporting

US Market News

The US press details how the fed yesterday made an historic move and links the future movement of interest rates to jobs, stating it would keep rates close to zero until unemployment falls below 6.5%
Lloyd Blankfein has stated that there was a close to 100% likelihood that the next leader of Goldman’s already works at the firm
Google’s boss is the first businessman to state the obvious truth and say that he was proud of his company’s efforts to reduce its tax bill, after the recent criticisms of major global corporation’s tax avoidance schemes
Moody’s announces that it has cut its outlook on British Colombia to negative from stable
Bloomberg details a report from Citigroup that the US is now almost free of depending on imported energy, and is positioned to top Saudi Arabia as the world’s top producer of oil
McAfee has reportedly arrived back in the US, after being deported from Guatemala

Overnight Market News

Vacheron Constantin the luxury watchmaker states that it is to increase its production capacity on continued demand growth in China, as a new survey suggests that Chinese buyers accounted for as much as one quarter of total luxury market buying in 2012
The Bank of Korea leaves its key interest rate unchanged at 2.75%, as expected
BNP Paribas is seen increasing its stake in Chinese lender Bank of Nanjing to 20%

Major Global IPOs Due Today

Economic Data Due

Economic Events

US November PPI