London open: Stocks track Asian markets lower
Market Movers
- techMARK 2,179.49 -0.10%
- FTSE 100 6,089.25 -0.46%
- FTSE 250 12,725.06 -0.39%
UK stocks were lower on Wednesday morning as market sentiment was
weighed down by heavy losses in Asia, concerns over the euro and a
growth forecast cut by the World Bank.
"European equities are trading slightly lower this morning unable to recoup yesterday's losses with pressure arising out of Asia
overnight where the recent rapid ascent, especially in Japan, has come
to an abrupt halt due to profit-taking and a stronger Japanese yen,"
said Markus Huber, the head of German HNW trading at ETX Capital.
The World Bank
has cut its global growth forecast for 2013 due to the difficult
recovery that economies worldwide are currently undergoing despite the
improvement in the financial markets. It now expects growth of 2.4% this
year, down from its prior forecast of 3%.
Stocks across Europe have been dampened further by Eurogroup chief and Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker who said that the euro was reaching "dangerously high" levels.
Market analyst Michael Hewson from CMC Markets: "Unfortunately this
appears to be the price for the recent decline in Spanish and Italian
bond yields, which have been highly correlated with the euro as pressure
on the ability of the Spanish and Italian governments to sell their
bonds has subsided. If yields continue to fall then we could well see
further euro gains towards $1.40 which would ratchet up the problems
once again in the weaker economies as they struggle to rebalance."
Meanwhile, markets are showing caution ahead of a number key economic indicators
today, including consumer price inflation data in the Eurozone and US,
as well as earnings figures from Wall Street banking heavyweight Goldman Sachs.
FTSE 100: Banks out of favour early on
Part-nationalised lenders RBS and Lloyds
were registering losses after Bank of England officials said that they
need more capital to shore up their balance sheets. Meanwhile, the Daily Mail has said that RBS may be facing the prospect of a £500m fine over its alleged role in the LIBOR interest-rate rigging scandal.
Anglo American
was extending losses from yesterday after the restructuring of its
platinum operations prompted backlash from South African politicians and
unions. Goldman Sachs cut its target for the stock this morning from
1,650p to 1,500p, retaining its 'sell' recommendation.
Tobacco giant Imperial was a heavy faller this morning after going ex-dividend.
EVRAZ
was lower despite completing the acquisition of a 50% stake in Corber
Enterprises, meaning that it has secured an indirect controlling
interest in OJSC Raspadskaya. The purchase makes the enlarged group the
largest producer of coking coal in Russia.
Information services company Experian gained after posting a 5.0% increase in revenue for the three months to December 31st.
| AIM/Small Cap Report |
FTSE 100 - Risers
Shire Plc (SHP) 2,066.00p +1.62%
Johnson Matthey (JMAT) 2,274.00p +1.25%
United Utilities Group (UU.) 705.50p +1.15%
Capital Shopping Centres Group (CSCG) 367.50p +1.13%
Experian (EXPN) 1,049.00p +1.06%
CRH (CRH) 1,227.00p +0.99%
Associated British Foods (ABF) 1,546.00p +0.91%
Tate & Lyle (TATE) 776.00p +0.91%
Unilever (ULVR) 2,426.00p +0.87%
Carnival (CCL) 2,481.00p +0.85%
FTSE 100 - Fallers
Anglo American (AAL) 1,884.50p -3.90%
Imperial Tobacco Group (IMT) 2,392.00p -3.70%
Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 53.19p -2.17%
Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 347.10p -1.98%
ARM Holdings (ARM) 826.50p -1.72%
ITV (ITV) 110.60p -1.60%
Xstrata (XTA) 1,164.50p -1.56%
Barclays (BARC) 291.00p -1.49%
Standard Chartered (STAN) 1,655.00p -1.43%
Glencore International (GLEN) 387.65p -1.29%
FTSE 250 - Risers
Daejan Holdings (DJAN) 3,110.00p +2.47%
Filtrona PLC (FLTR) 555.50p +1.83%
Petra Diamonds Ltd.(DI) (PDL) 117.30p +1.47%
RPC Group (RPC) 412.50p +1.10%
Perform Group (PER) 384.10p +1.08%
Raven Russia Ltd (RUS) 66.25p +1.07%
Kenmare Resources (KMR) 35.46p +1.05%
British Empire Securities & General Trust (BTEM) 496.45p +0.93%
PayPoint (PAY) 851.50p +0.89%
Alent (ALNT) 349.90p +0.89%
FTSE 250 - Fallers
Dixons Retail (DXNS) 25.77p -5.22%
New World Resources A Shares (NWR) 286.90p -4.68%
Lonmin (LMI) 332.10p -4.02%
Taylor Wimpey (TW.) 72.30p -3.66%
Jupiter Fund Management (JUP) 314.70p -3.17%
EnQuest (ENQ) 120.00p -3.15%
Ferrexpo (FXPO) 256.10p -2.81%
Wetherspoon (J.D.) (JDW) 519.50p -2.35%
Diploma (DPLM) 525.50p -2.32%
Debenhams (DEB) 103.20p -2.27% |
| UK Event Calendar |
 |
| FTSE 100 | Euronext | Dax perf | CAC 40 |
 |  |  |  |
|
INTERIM DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE
JPMorgan Euro Small Co. Trust, National Grid, Ventus 2 VCT, Ventus 2 VCT 'C' Shares, Ventus VCT, Ventus VCT 'C' Shares
INTERIM EX-DIVIDEND DATE
ACM Shipping Group, Ashtead Group, Central Asia Metals, Consort Medical, QinetiQ Group
QUARTERLY PAYMENT DATE
Africa Opportunity Fund Ltd.
QUARTERLY EX-DIVIDEND DATE
F&C Commercial Property Trust Ltd., Middlefield Canadian Income PCC
INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS
Beige Book Fed Survey (US) (19:00)
Consumer Price Index (US) (13:30)
Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices (EU) (10:00)
Industrial Production (US) (16:15)
New Car Registrations (EU) (10:00)
GMS
Serabi Gold
IMSS
Brown (N.) Group, C&C Group, Diploma, Experian, Wetherspoon (J.D.)
DRILLING REPORT
Fresnillo
SPECIAL EX-DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE
Central Asia Metals, Dewhurst, Dewhurst (Non-Voting)
AGMS
Diploma, Majedie Investments
TRADING ANNOUNCEMENTS
Barratt Developments
FINAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE
Bellway
FINAL EX-DIVIDEND DATE
Cardiff
Property, CareTech Holding, Catco Reinsurance Opportunities Fund Ltd
(DI), Character Group, Dewhurst, Dewhurst (Non-Voting), Downing Income
Vct, Downing Income Vct 4, Dunedin Smaller Companies Inv Trust, Imperial
Tobacco Group, Tracsis
|
| US Market Report |
Dow and S&P close in the blue following late-day rally
Dow Jones Industrials: 13534.90 (0.20%)
Nasdaq Comp.: 3110.78 (-0.22%)
S&P 500: 1472.34 (0.09%)
Both the Dow Jones Industrials and S&P 500 indices were up at the
close of US trading on Tuesday after a late-day rally in a number of US
stocks following encouraging data revealing retail sales had increased
in the month of December by 0.5 per cent compared to an upwardly revised
gain of 0.4% for the previous month.
The Nasdaq was the only major US benchmark to fall slightly, weighed down mainly by a fall in Apple's share price.
A flurry of insight into some of the country's key stocks emerged as
earnings season continued, showing that challenges remain at some of the
nation's largest companies. General Motors was reported as
stating that international operating margins would decrease in 2013,
explaining that the smaller margins were due in part to more competition
from China.
The automobile sector will be much followed until January 27th, when the Detroit Auto Show is due to finish.
The inspector general of the US Postal Service
was quoted in the UK's Guardian newspaper as warning that the company
could go out of business in 2013 if Congress didn't act to rescue it. In
the wake of the 2007 economic downturn, fewer people have been sending
post and there has been less demand for the more expensive first class
service.
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg laid out a
new vision of search based on his company's private database of social
information and Walmart pledged to source an additional $50bn of
products from the US over the decade to boost domestic manufacturers'
businesses.
No major policy announcements were made although key players voiced opinions over the impending fiscal cliff. Among them, Narayana Kocherlakota,
the Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank President, told members of the
media that the US Central Bank should keep interest rates low until the
unemployment rate hit a more normal level of 5.5%.
Tech sector weighed down
Nomura cut its price target on Apple
to $530 per share from $600 before. Also weighing on the markets were
the weaker than forecast quarterly operating profits out from German
software manufacturer SAP.
Dell on the other hand outperformed its sector following a report in Bloomberg yesterday evening that the firm is discussing a leveraged buyout with private-equity firms TPG Capital and Silver Lake.
Forest Labs traded lower after the release of worse than expected quarterly figures.
Retailers were higher after Express lifted its outlook for the fourth quarter.
The best performers today from a sector stand-point are: Apparel retailers (-2.34%), Automobiles (-1.59%) and Coal (1.37%). The worst performers are Alternative energies (-2.5%) and Computer hardware (-2.02%).
Strong retail sales numbers
Retail
sales rose at a 0.5% month-on-month clip in December (Consensus: 0.4%)
and by another 0.3% if sales of automobiles are excluded (Consensus:
0.2%).
The New York Fed's manufacturing gauge for the month of
January came in at -7.78 after last month's reading of -7.3 (Consensus:
0.0).
Producer prices fell at a 0.2% month-on-month pace in
December (Consensus: -0.1%). US business inventories grew by 0.3%
month-on-month (Consensus: 0.3%).
US crude futures retreat
Front month West Texas crude futures are now falling 0.83% to the 93.37 dollar per barrel mark on the NYMEX.
10 year US Treasury yields are now down by two basis points to the 1.82% mark.
S&P 500 - Risers
Dell Inc. (DELL) $13.17 +7.16%
Apollo Group Inc. (APOL) $20.36 +5.38%
Denbury Resources Inc. (DNR) $17.76 +5.21%
Symantec Corp. (SYMC) $20.85 +4.72%
Avon Products Inc. (AVP) $16.06 +4.35%
FMC Technologies Inc. (FTI) $46.00 +4.26%
Big Lots Inc. (BIG) $29.78 +3.58%
J.C. Penney Co. Inc. (JCP) $18.71 +3.43%
Gap Inc. (GPS) $32.46 +3.41%
Tiffany & Co. (TIF) $63.24 +3.25%
S&P 500 - Fallers
Apple Inc. (AAPL) $485.92 -3.15%
Fiserv Inc. (FISV) $80.47 -2.93%
Windstream Corp. (WIN) $9.72 -2.80%
Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ) $16.53 -2.48%
Patterson Companies Inc. (PDCO) $34.80 -2.27%
Amgen Inc. (AMGN) $85.08 -2.12%
Nvidia Corp. (NVDA) $11.98 -1.80%
Intuitive Surgical Inc. (ISRG) $503.59 -1.78%
Cerner Corp. (CERN) $80.70 -1.78%
Netflix Inc. (NFLX) $101.69 -1.70%
Dow Jones I.A - Risers
Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) $27.21 +1.19%
Caterpillar Inc. (CAT) $95.67 +1.10%
JP Morgan Chase & Co. (JPM) $46.35 +1.02%
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT) $68.98 +1.00%
Walt Disney Co. (DIS) $51.09 +0.99%
Coca-Cola Co. (KO) $37.32 +0.89%
Travelers Company Inc. (TRV) $75.56 +0.81%
Home Depot Inc. (HD) $63.95 +0.74%
Bank of America Corp. (BAC) $11.55 +0.70%
Chevron Corp. (CVX) $113.44 +0.52%
Dow Jones I.A - Fallers
Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ) $16.53 -2.48%
Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ) $41.97 -1.46%
Merck & Co. Inc. (MRK) $42.87 -1.08%
AT&T Inc. (T) $33.76 -0.76%
American Express Co. (AXP) $60.76 -0.74%
Intel Corp. (INTC) $21.88 -0.54%
Pfizer Inc. (PFE) $26.62 -0.45%
Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) $72.37 -0.26%
International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) $192.50 -0.06%
Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) $89.53 -0.06% |
| Wednesday newspaper round-up |
AstraZeneca, Facebook, PPI claims...
The new boss of AstraZeneca
has dismissed two of the drugs company’s leadership team as part of a
shake-up intended to tackle flagging sales and scientific setbacks. The
head of research and development, Martin Mackay, and its global
commercial chief, Tony Zook, are to leave the pharmaceuticals group at
the end of the month and their positions will be “eliminated”. Pascal
Soriot, the chief executive, said that he wanted to “accelerate
decision-making” and to bring an “even sharper management focus to key
pipeline assets, key brands and key markets”. [The Times]
Facebook
has moved directly into Google’s territory after launching an advanced
search capability for the social network. Mark Zuckerberg laid out on
Tuesday a new vision of search based on his company’s private database
of social information, rather than the collection of links on the open
web that underpins Google’s service. “We’re giving people the power and
the tools to take any cut of the graph that they want and make any query
they want,” Facebook’s chief executive said.[Financial Times]
The banking industry and the Financial Services Authority are in talks
to set a new cut-off date to put an end to the continuing
multibillion-pound stream of claims for the mis-selling of payment protection insurance.
Industry sources confirmed that the British Bankers’ Association has
suggested a deadline of around next summer in return for the banks
agreeing to finance a widespread advertising campaign to ensure that the
public is aware of an end-date for claims. The FSA is understood to be
sympathetic to banks’ concerns that there may be no end to mis-selling
claims, despite hopes that the majority would have been made last year.
However, the need for consumers to get a fair deal will be central to
any solution. [The Times]
Japan's largest airline, ANA, and its competitor JAL have each grounded their entire fleet of Boeing 787 Dreamliners
after an emergency landing due to a smoke alarm in the cockpit – the
most dramatic of a spate of incidents involving the troubled aircraft
over the past week and since its inception. All Nippon Airways said the
plane's eight crew and all 129 passengers had evacuated safely on
inflatable slides. Instruments in the cockpit indicated there had been a
battery malfunction and the pilot had noticed a strange smell. [The Guardian]
Britain's bailed-out banks need billions of pounds more capital to
shore up their balance sheets and support the economy, senior Bank of
England officials have warned. UK regulators have given Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group
until March to begin dealing with a black hole that Brooks Newmark, a
Tory member of the Treasury Select Committee, suggested could be as
large as £30bn. [The Telegraph]
Goldman Sachs
has been forced into an embarrassing climbdown from plans to allow its
highly paid bankers to avoid the 50% top rate of tax, following public
intervention by Bank of England governor Sir Mervyn King and pressure
from the government. But the Wall Street firm is expected to spark a
fresh row over City bonuses on Wednesday by revealing that its bankers
have enjoyed a 10% pay rise when it announces profits for 2012. Goldman
was already facing condemnation about proposals to defer bonuses until
after 6 April, when the top rate of income tax falls to 45% from 50%,
when King waded in. The Bank of England governor told MPs he regarded
such attempts as "depressing". [The Guardian]
Developing countries should not be tempted to stimulate their economies this year in the face of weak growth, the World Bank
warned on Wednesday even though the world faces another challenging
year. In forecasts that suggest 2013 will see only marginally stronger
growth than last year, the Bank recommends that poor and middle-income
countries concentrate on fundamental drivers of prosperity rather than
attempt a quick fix. The warning comes as growth rates in large emerging
economies including Brazil, Russia and India slowed sharply last year
and just days after Japan’s incoming government launched a Y10.3tn
($116bn) stimulus package to revive its economy. [Financial Times]
Cuts in public spending and the ongoing eurozone crisis will lead to thousands of fresh job losses across Scotland’s construction sector
over the next four years, according to a report that warns of a
“demographic time-bomb” facing the industry. In today’s annual report,
the Construction Skills Network (CSN) estimated that employment in the
sector north of the Border would fall by 1 per cent a year on average
between 2013 and 2017. That is despite the fact that output is set to
eke growth over the period, following a drop of 13 per cent in 2012.
|
|
No comments:
Post a Comment