Evening Euro Markets Bulletin

ADVFN III Evening Euro Markets Bulletin Daily world financial news Tuesday, 19 December 2017 19:01:28 Monitor Quote Charts News CFD's Compare Brokers Free BB   Who pockets your portfolio's profits? You or your broker? Make sure you’re not paying too much for your portfolio’s account admin by choosing fixed over percentage-based fees. Capital at risk. Read more London Market Report FTSE 100 Euronext Dax perf CAC 40 Please click on the images to view our interactive charts London close: Footsie hovers near record-highs ahead of US tax cut vote London stocks managed to just about hold their head above water on Tuesday, with optimism over the US tax reform bill failing to provide much of a boost as investors began to wind down for Christmas. The top flight index was up 0.09% to 7,544.09 after hitting its highest level in over a month earlier in the session, while the pound was off by 0.17% against the US dollar at 1.3361 and 0.55% weaker versus the euro to 1.1297 as Michel Barnier, the EU's chief Brexit negotiator, ruled out any kind of special deal for the City of London. Worth noting, at one point during the day the Footsie came within a half percentage points of its record highs at 7,598.99. Spreadex analyst Connor Campbell said: "The markets have slipped into a bit of a lull this Tuesday, with the tax bill- boost dissipating as the morning went on." On Monday, the Nasdaq, Dow Jones and S&P 500 all notched record highs again, with the Nasdaq crossing the 7,000 level for the first time in intraday trading as investors grew increasingly hopeful that the US tax reform bill will be passed in the coming days after critics of the reforms, Marco Rubio and Bob Corker, said they would back the plans. In corporate news, Old Mutual rallied after it agreed to sell its single strategy business for £600m in a management buyout led by the division's chief executive Richard Buxton. Petrofac gushed higher after it completed the migration of the Santuario production enhancement contract into an interest in a production sharing contract. Indivior gained as it entered into an amendment with various lenders to provide replacement term loan facilities in an aggregate principal amount of around $484m, replacing all of its dollar and euro-denominated term loans outstanding under the existing credit agreement. Shares of Acacia Mining on the other hand were lower after agreeing the sale of a non-core royalty over the Houndé Mine in Burkina Faso for $45m. GoCompare racked up healthy gains as the price comparison website announced that it has agreed to buy MyVoucherCodes from Monitise for £36.5m in cash and said 2017 operating profit is expected to be at the upper end of market expectations. UDG Healthcare fell after it announced the appointment of Nigel Clerkin as its chief financial officer, while BHP Billiton was weaker after saying that it is considering leaving the World Coal Association and the US Chamber of Commerce. Associated British Foods and Saga were both hit by downgrades from RBC Capital Markets. FatPROPHETS Successful stock recommendations since 2000 Fat Prophets is a stock market research house that specialises in assisting value based investors with buy, hold and sell recommendations Click Here Join a Q&A with eToro's top popular investor, Jaynemesis! Understand how he made over 200% returns trading cryptocurrencies this year.  @ 3pm GMT on Friday, 8th December. Click here to tune in! Europe Market Report FTSE 100 Euronext Dax perf CAC 40 Europe close: Investors take profits on stocks and bonds ahead of US tax vote Selling on the Continent accelerated in the last hour of trading, giving back some of the prior day's gains as longer-term government bond yields snapped higher on both sides of the Atlantic ahead of the first of two votes in the US Congress on Republicans' tax reform plans. By the closing bell, the benchmark Stoxx 600 was down by 0.42% or 1.64 points to 391.02, alongside a dip of 0.72% or 96.51 points to 13,215.79 on the German Dax and a fall of 0.69% or 37.67 points to 5,382.91 for the French Cac-40. In parallel, euro/dollar was 0.33% higher at 1.1812, alongside a seven basis point jump on the benchmark 10-year bund to 0.38%. "European stock markets have been sliding throughout the afternoon. The FTSE 100 is just about in positive territory even though it hit a six week high earlier today. The London market was broken out of the downward trend that it was in since early November, and if the bullish move continues, we could see it target 7600 before the Christmas break. "The DAX had has handed back some of the gains it made on the back of the planned talks between the Social Democrats and Christian Democratic Union (CDU) later this week. The negotiations between the two parties could pave the way for a coalition government being formed in Germany. The two sides have been bedfellows in the previous government, and the Social Democrats paid the price for it, so the party may be cautious about teaming up again," commented David Madden at CMC Markets UK. The US House of Representatives was expected to vote on the tax cut proposals on Tuesday night, followed by a Senate vote, possibly the following day. Weighing slightly on sentiment, business confidence in Germany slipped slightly in December, according to the prestigious IFO institute. The think-tank's sentiment gauge dipped from 117.6 for November to 117.2 as a subindex of expectations fell from a reading of 111.0 to 109.5 (consensus: 110.7). Elsewhere, data from Eurostat revealed a slowdown in euro area labour costs from a 1.8% pace year-on-year in the second quarter to 1.6% for the three-month stretch to September. Nonetheless, in a research note sent to clients Claus Vistesen, chief Eurozone economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, said: "the key story is the significant divergence in headline growth rates. Wages in France and Germany are rising about 2% year-over-year, while they are barely growing in Spain and Italy. Overall, these data point to sluggish wage growth dynamics in the euro area, but we caution they are very long lagging, and significantly revised. We think headline growth will rise steadily to about 2% in the next 12 months." In corporate news, shares of Hugo Boss shot higher company chief Mark Langer told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung it was aiming to grow more quickly than the market in 2018. Elsewhere, Old Mutual agreed to sell its single strategy business for $600m in a management buy-out backed by private equity outfit TA Associates. Top of the stocks Number of Deals Bought Place EPIC Equity name % 1 SMT Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust 6.07 2 AV. Aviva plc 4.90 3 HSBA HSBC Holdings plc 3.41 4 CNA Centrica plc 3.13 5 CTY City Of London Investment Trust 2.44 6 BA. BAE Systems plc 2.03 7 TSCO Tesco plc 1.89 8 BDEV Barratt Developments plc 1.69 9 SAGA Saga plc 1.59 10 ITV ITV plc 1.57 Number of Deals Sold Place EPIC Equity name % 1 VAL Valirx plc 2.62 2 XBT Provider AB 2.19 3 LION Lionsgold Limited 2.01 4 LLOY Lloyds Banking Group plc 1.76 5 XBT Provider AB 1.53 6 GGP Greatland Gold Plc 1.30 7 RMG Royal Mail PLC 1.19 8 PFC Petrofac 1.10 9 BARC Barclays plc 1.09 10 XBT Provider AB 0.99 US Market Report US open: Stocks dip ahead of House vote on tax cuts Wall Street's main market gauges are trading slightly lower as investors wait on a vote on Republicans' tax cut plans in the US House of Representatives scheduled for later in the day. At 1616 GMT, the Dow Jones Industrials Average was dipping 0.15% or 38.01 at 24,775.93, while the S&P 500 was off by 0.09% or 2.30 points to 2,687.85 and the Nasdaq Composite by 0.28% or 19.26 points to 6,975.57. From a sector standpoint, the weakest areas of the market were: Residential REITs (-1.44%), Independent multiutilities (-1.30%) and Real estate services (-1.26%). Meanwhile, the yield on the benchmark 10-year US Treasury note was up by five basis points to 2.44% while the US dollar spot index was down by 0.03% to 93.66. On Monday, the Nasdaq, Dow Jones and S&P 500 all notched record highs again, with the Nasdaq crossing the 7,000 level for the first time in intraday trading as investors bet that the US tax reform bill will be passed this week after critics of the reforms, Marco Rubio and Bob Corker, said they would back the plans. Craig Erlam, senior market analyst at Oanda, said: "Tax reform was one of the key initiatives that contributed to Donald Trump's election victory last year as he vowed to revitalise a sluggish US economy. While it may have taken longer to deliver than he expected, it would appear that Republicans determination to give Americans an early Christmas present has paid off, although there has been numerous debates about who actually stands to benefit most from the bill. "Markets have clearly benefited from the prospect of tax reform over the last 13 months and the Santa rally that we've seen in the run up to Christmas is another reflection of that. It will be interesting to see if this will be maintained for the rest of the week or whether it becomes a 'buy the rumour, sell the fact' scenario." The Commerce Department reported that America's current account deficit shrank by 19% over the three months to September, from $124.4bn to $100.6bn (consensus: -$116.5bn). Housing starts jumped by 3.3% month-on-month to reach an annualised pace of 1.297m in November (consensus: 1.250m), according to the Census Bureau, which was up from a downwardly revised pace of 1.256m for October. New home sales for October had originally been pegged at 1.290m. In corporate news, shares of Navistar International surged following the release of its fourth-quarter earnings. Stock in Tenet Healthcare was also on the up after saying it would boost its cost-cutting programme. Nevertheless, the company's guided towards earnings per share in a range between $1.07 and $1.36 for the full year 2018, which was well below the $1.40 anticipated by analysts. Elsewhere, Kindred Healthcare agreed to be taken over by three companies, Humana, TPG Capital and Welsh, Carson, Anderson&Stowe for roughly $4.1bn in cash. Cruiseship operator Carnival was also putting in a strong showing on the heels of better-than-expected sales and earnings for its fiscal fourth quarter. Dow Jones - Risers Walt Disney Co. (DIS) $112.27 1.12% Home Depot Inc. (HD) $186.59 1.01% Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT) $98.80 0.92% Coca-Cola Co. (KO) $46.29 0.78% Chevron Corp. (CVX) $120.19 0.41% Travelers Company Inc. (TRV) $135.61 0.30% Dowdupont Inc. (DWDP) $71.60 0.29% Merck & Co. Inc. (MRK) $56.35 0.23% Boeing Co. (BA) $296.49 0.12% Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO) $38.51 0.07% Dow Jones - Fallers Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) $256.70 -1.28% Apple Inc. (AAPL) $174.80 -0.92% Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) $85.61 -0.89% General Electric Co. (GE) $17.63 -0.76% Visa Inc. (V) $112.96 -0.52% 3M Co. (MMM) $237.25 -0.49% American Express Co. (AXP) $99.26 -0.42% United Technologies Corp. (UTX) $126.19 -0.41% Unitedhealth Group Inc. (UNH) $221.77 -0.40% McDonald's Corp. (MCD) $173.65 -0.32% S&P 500 - Risers Zimmer Biomet Holdings Inc (ZBH) $122.82 7.33% Darden Restaurants Inc. (DRI) $95.51 5.49% Alcoa Corporation (AA) $46.07 3.37% Newfield Exploration Co (NFX) $29.67 3.24% Marathon Oil Corp. (MRO) $15.91 3.11% Noble Energy Inc. (NBL) $27.06 2.91% Henry Schein Inc. (HSIC) $72.09 2.75% Patterson Companies Inc. (PDCO) $37.67 2.63% Tenet Healthcare Corp. (THC) $15.13 2.61% Halliburton Co. (HAL) $46.49 2.22% S&P 500 - Fallers Welltower Inc (HCN) $65.17 -3.22% Frontier Communications Co. (FTR) $7.94 -3.17% PPL Corp. (PPL) $32.91 -3.12% Ventas Inc. (VTR) $62.55 -2.86% Signet Jewelers Ltd (SIG) $53.44 -2.69% ProLogis (PLD) $64.09 -2.68% Seagate Technology Plc (STX) $41.96 -2.40% HCP Inc. (HCP) $26.36 -2.30% AvalonBay Communities Inc. (AVB) $178.69 -2.07% Boston Properties Inc. (BXP) $128.41 -1.95% Nasdaq 100 - Risers JD.com, Inc. (JD) $43.38 4.08% Liberty Interactive Corporation QVC Group (QVCA) $26.29 3.46% Shire Plc Ads (SHPG) $156.73 3.25% Ulta Salon, Cosmetics & Fragrance Inc. (ULTA) $229.66 3.14% Henry Schein Inc. (HSIC) $72.09 2.75% Mercadolibre Inc. (MELI) $331.25 1.57% Express Scripts Holding Co (ESRX) $74.48 1.50% Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. (REGN) $388.49 1.33% Cadence Design Systems Inc. (CDNS) $44.03 1.08% Xilinx Inc. (XLNX) $70.25 1.02% Nasdaq 100 - Fallers Seagate Technology Plc (STX) $41.96 -2.40% Netflix Inc. (NFLX) $187.12 -1.73% Sirius XM Holdings Inc (SIRI) $5.34 -1.57% Charter Communications Inc. (CHTR) $318.55 -1.45% Baidu Inc. (BIDU) $237.51 -1.42% Biomarin Pharmaceutical Inc. (BMRN) $91.33 -1.37% Lam Research Corp. (LRCX) $186.49 -1.36% Costco Wholesale Corp. (COST) $189.71 -1.35% Dish Network Corp. (DISH) $49.28 -1.15% Latest reports from Atlantic Advisory, including GSK, BP, Lloyds....... Available Now: AstraZeneca, Bitcoin, Boohoo.com, BP, Carillion, Glaxo SmithKline, Glencore, Greatland Gold Plc, UK House Prices, Hurrancane Energy, IQE, Lloyds Banking Group, Barclays vs Lloyds, UK Oil and Gas, Provident Financial and Sirius Minerals. Click here to select your FREE REPORTS from Atlantic Advisory CFDs are leveraged products that carry a high level of risk to your capital. Broker Tips Broker tips: Lloyds, Barclays, Entertainment One Goldman Sachs reiterated its 'sell' recommendation on shares of Lloyds and Barclays, placing both stocks on its list of 'UK Sell Ideas' for 2018. Analysts at the investment bank pointed to evidence of lower margins on mortgages and intensifying competition on deposits as reflected in the lenders' latest third quarter financials as the main cause of their 'bearishness'. Those pressures would continue in 2018, they said, as rival HSBC increased its share of the UK mortgage market via increased use of the intermediary channel and as the drawing window for the Term Funding Scheme closed shut in February. Making matters worse, the Bank of England's latest set of stress tests showed the lender now had reduced headroom than in 2016 and the 2018 edition of the stress tests would include a roughly 200 basis point D-SIB buffer. As a result, Goldman said: "Investors are therefore increasingly focused on whether the group will be permitted to continue operating in line with its current target capital level (a c.13% CET1 ratio). In our view, upward pressure on capital could in turn impact the group's potential for dividend growth." Following the financial crisis, high street banks have funded fewer SME housebuilders Alternative finance providers are stepping in to fill this void, offering investors high margins and attractive returns. One of these lenders, Clearwell Capital is currently fundraising with a 3-year secured bond paying 10% per annum. Click here to find out more. Capital at risk.   To advertise in the Euro Markets Bulletin please contact advertise@advfn.com     To unsubscribe from this news bulletin or edit your mailing list settings click here. Registered Office/Accounts Dept: Suite 27, Essex Technology Centre, The Gable, Fyfield Road, Ongar, CM5 0GA. Customer Support +44 (0) 207 0700 961. Company registered in England and Wales: Number 2374988 VAT No. GB 549 2130 49