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

02 Jan 2013

Cantor Opening Call

The FTSE closed on New Year’s Eve at 5894 and early calls today have an open seen around 5970

UK Corporate Announcements

UK Market News

Royal Dutch Shell states that it is working with US coastguards to attempt top assess damage to a floating oil drilling ship that has grounded on a remote Alaskan island in 70 mph winds
Lloyds keeps the early focus on banks as The Telegraph writes that its ATM systems reportedly crashed for an hour on New Year’s Eve
The Institute for Public Policy research suggests that the UK economy may show no growth for 2013, while an FT survey suggests that the UK economy looks set for another tough year with a number urging George Osborne to rethink the austerity drive, with only 46% of those polled seeing a sustained recovery ahead
The UK takes over the presidency of the G8 this year with Cameron stating that he is focused on advancing trade and ensuring tax compliance and promoting greater transparency
Reed suggests that the jobs market is at its strongest for the past three years, with Q4 the best quarter for new jobs since 2009

FTSE 100 Movers

European Market Summary

Bloomberg details that Turkey has posted 24% returns in its bonds over the past five years as its application to join the EU instilled budget discipline
Hollande states that his planned 75% tax on high earners would be ‘restructured’ after the high court blocks his initial plans
France sells up to €7bn in bills at 10:50, Sweden sells bonds at 11:03 and Germany is due to sell €5bn in 2 year notes at 11:30

Major US Stock Movers After Hours

Best Buy announces that its former interim CEO has become is to leave the company to become president of ESL investments the hedge fund operator

US Market News

The US House passed the budget bill, averting most of the tax increases, as US Republicans abandon efforts to add spending cuts to the bill and President Obama states that more needs to be done to improve the US economy
The budget deal will lift taxes for 77% of the US households, largely due to the expiration of the payroll tax cut
Boeing is looking set to pass Airbus as delivering more passenger jets over the past year, for the first time in over a decade

Overnight Market News

Asian markets gained a touch overnight, buoyed by the US deal, equity markets in China and Japan are closed today
Data out overnight has Macau December revenues up to a fresh record of 28.2bn patacas up 14% from last year
China Steel Corp has led a group to pay $1.5bn for a 155 stake in ArcelorMittals Mines Canada
China is set to build more cars than Europe in 2013, for the first time

Economic Data Due

UK PMI