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

UK Corporate Announcements

Kazakhmys states that it sees a positive outlook for copper, as it details H1 sales of $1.52bn from $1.82bn but does state that its performance has been affected by lower metals prices

Diageo announces organic operating profits gained 9% just ahead of the forecasts and recommends an 8% increase in its dividend

SIG states that its European business has been hurt by the weakening euro and states that H2 LFL sales so far have been in line with last year and reports an H1 pre-tax profit of £25.2m from the loss of £0.6m last year

Costain announces an underlying operating profit that gained 16% on revenues of £477m up from £468m

Aegis announces an H1 pre-tax profit of £87m on revenues of £596m

IMI reports an H1 adjusted pre-tax profit of £177m from £171m and largely in line with the forecasts

WH Smith states that it has seen an improvement in book sales and now sees its results at the top end of the expectations and plans an additional share buyback

Skyepharma announces H1 EBITDA of £4.9m from £4.2m on revenues of £19.8m from £22.1m

UK Market News

A report commissioned by 3i suggests that the UK should take steps to encourage additional build to let projects in order to cope with the soaring rent demand as house buying remains at low levels

Anglo American will be eyed after reports suggest that today it could state that it has reached an agreement with Chile’s Codelco over a 10 month dispute on its Sur unit, a major copper mine

Premier Foods announces it is sell its sweet spreads and jellies unit to Hain for £200m

The UK is to sell £3.75bn of 2018 bonds at 10:30

UK Analyst Upgrades

Domino’s Pizza Rated New Equalweight at Barclays; PT 552p

Micro Focus Pt Raised To 420P Vs 330P At Jefferies

Smith & Nephew Exits Least Preferred Bio & Medtech Shrs At Ubs

UK Analyst Cuts

Cobham Cut To Neutral Vs Buy At Citi On Valuation, Budget Risks

Serco Cut to Hold from Buy at Deutsche Bank

Vedanta Raises Offers for Stakes in Balco, Hindustan Zinc: WSJ

UK Insider Buying

Centamin Plc, (CEY), 1 insider(s) bought 30,000 shares, £0.72

Jkx Oil & Gas Plc, (JKX), 1 insider(s) bought 5,490 shares, £0.87

UK Insider Selling

Bank Of Georgia Holdin, (BGEO), 1 insider(s) sold 7,442 shares, £11.72

Jupiter Fund Managemen, (JUP),  insider(s) sold 30,000 shares, £2.26

Vitec Group Plc/The, (VTC),  insider(s) sold 3,800 shares, £6.45

Major European Companies Reporting

Aegis Group PLC, S1, 0.044,  Diageo PLC, R, 0.922,  IMI PLC, S1, 0.004,  JM AB, Q2, 3.178,  Kazakhmys PLC, S1, 0.864,  Koninklijke Ahold NV, S1, 0,  OPAP SA, Q2, 0.29,  Ophir Energy PLC, S1, -0.075,  Petropavlovsk PLC, S1, 0.513,  Premier Oil PLC, S1, 0.328

European Market Summary

Merkel meets Hollande today in Berlin

S&P states that the a Spanish bailout request may not affect its credit rating

Bloomberg highlights a report by East Capital that suggests that Russian share prices should be buoyed by Russia’s entry into the WTO, narrowing the long discount to other emerging markets, as it joins the WTO today after some 20 years of discussions

S&P 500 Companies Reporting

Autodesk Inc, Q2, 0.49,  Big Lots Inc, Q2, 0.413,  Hormel Foods Corp, Q3, 0.412,  Patterson Cos Inc, Q1, 0.486,  Salesforce.com Inc, Q2, 0.388

S&P 500 Ex Dividends (gross):-  Abercrombie & Fitch Co, ANF, (.175),  Assurant Inc, AIZ, (.21),  Northrop Grumman Corp, NOC, (.55),  Vulcan Materials Co, VMC, (.01)

Major US Stock Movers After Hours

Hewlett Packard guided lower yesterday citing slower demand for PCs and in its services, but only came off around 1% in late trading as whisper numbers had been expecting a tough turnaround for Meg Whitman, and details it is writing down $13.9bn relating to its acquisition of EDS

Rambus announces it is to cut around 15% of its workforce as it restructures into three business units

DFC Global was amongst the major movers, down around 10% as it reduces its full year outlook

Guess the denim wear maker fell over 16% in late trading as it details lower quarterly numbers and also cuts back on its full year outlook, citing its largest weakness in southern Europe

Pacific Sunwear however gained 8% after hours as it reported a quarterly loss well inside the forecasts and expects the positive trend to continue through Q3

US Market News

The Fed minutes out yesterday evening has increased talk of additional stimulus measures ahead, as many members have suggested that further action may be required ‘fairly soon’ without evidence of a substantial and sustainable recovery

Sources suggests that after two years of talks Hertz is now talking directly to shareholders of Dollar Thrifty Automotive to gauge their selling price

Best Buy has reportedly re-opened talks with founder Richard Schulze which would allow him to conduct due diligence, it gained 1.4% after hours

Calix details that it is to buy fiber access assets from Ericsson but does not give details on the deal, the stock gained 3% on the news

The number of US homeowners in negative equity fell by 400,000 in Q2, after house price gains in many regions, however 15.3m owners, around 31% of those with a mortgage are still in negative equity

The US Congressional Budget Office has warned that the US will probably slip into recession next year if Congress cannot agree on the budget ahead of the triggering of automatic cuts

Overnight Market News

Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing announces that it is to introduce a yuan future from September 17th, quoted in yuan/US dollar, the world’s first exchange traded deliverable yuan denominated future

The Chinese Securities and Futures Commission announces that it has suspended trading in China High Precision Automation Group, the first time it has suspended trading on a stock since march 2010, but declines to comment on why

The China Securities Journal states that China should allow the yuan to depreciate slightly to increase exports

Qantas announces it has cancelled a planned order of 35 Boeing 787s after reporting its first annual loss for over 15 years

Major Global IPOs Due Today

Inland Diversified Real Estate Trust Inc, (4620931Z), 500m, USD 10

TV Direct PCL, (TVD), 57.92m, THB 2.1

FX Summary

The dollar has come off following the FOMC meeting minutes as the expectations for additional easing which had already been gaining in recent weeks, gains additional arguments

The Canadian dollar has come after data shows that retail sales slowed in June by more than expected

Citigroup suggests that Greece could still leave the euro as early as next month and predicts further periods of intense financial market stres

Commodity Summary

Bloomberg details how Beef prices are gaining as herd sizes have dropped to historically low levels as farmers trim cattle numbers to deal with the record feed prices

Australia’s Resource Minister states that the national mining boom has ended, in response to BHP Billiton announcing yesterday that it has delayed its planned Olympic Dam investment

Economic Data Due

07:00 Germany Q2 GDP sa 0.3% exp. 0.3% previous

09:00 Eurozone August PMI Services, 47.8 exp. 47.9 previous

09:30 UK July BBA Loans for House Purchases, 26.2k previous

13:30 US Initial Jobless Claims, 365k exp. 366 previous

15:00 Eurozone August Consumer Confidence, -21.5 exp. -21.5 previous

15:00 US July New Home Sales, 362k exp. 350k previous

Economic Events

Fed’s Evans speaks in Beijing