Morning Euro Markets Bulletin

ADVFN  Morning Euro Markets Bulletin Daily world financial news Tuesday, 27 February 2018 10:42:59 Monitor Quote Charts News CFD's Compare Brokers Free BB   Get Your FREE Weekly Bitcoin Newsletter From Guardian Stockbrokers Click Here To Subscribe For FREE Today All trading involves risk. Losses can exceed deposits. London open: Stocks in the black as Sky rockets on Comcast bid FTSE 100 Euronext Dax perf CAC 40 Please click on the images to view our interactive charts London stocks rose in early trade, boosted by deal news and well-received earnings from the likes of Standard Charteredand Persimmon, as traders eye the first congressional testimony from new Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell. At 0835 GMT, the FTSE 100 was 0.4% higher at 7,318.27, while the pound was up 0.1% against the dollar to 1.3986 and flat versus the euro at 1.1338. With the market's views on the path for US interest rate hikes a key focus in recent weeks, James Hughes, chief market analyst at AxiTrader, said Powell's semi-annual Congress testimony would be closely watched. "Does he remain pragmatic and toe the party line when it comes to policy, the balance sheet and the inflation outlook? Or, just maybe does he set to build his reputation and go in all guns blazing. There are arguments for both approaches but the safe money is on the former. "So what will Jerome Powell say? For me he will take the last FOMC meeting minutes and almost repeat it word for word, with the expectation of inflation hitting 2% but not overshooting, and say that gradual rate hikes are still necessary, stopping short of hinting that we may well see more than three hikes in 2018." In corporate news, Sky rocketed as US cable TV company Comcast made a £22.1bn takeover bid for the broadcaster, outbidding 21st Century Fox. Standard Chartered was on the front foot after saying it will resume its dividend as it swung to a net profit of $774m for 2017 from a loss of $478m the year before. Doorstep lender Provident Financial surged as investors welcomed the announcement of a smaller-than-expected rights issue, although the company also said it swung to a pre-tax loss in 2017 from a profit the year before. Engineer GKN, which is currently fending off a hostile bid from turnaround specialist Melrose Industries, posted a 125% jump in full-year reported pre-tax profit. Housebuilder Persimmon rose sharply as it pledged to pay out double its previously promised surplus cash via bumper dividends over this and the next two years and reported profits growth and encouraging recent sales. Peers Barratt Developments, Berkeley and Taylor Wimpey all gained. Insurer Direct Line advanced as it announced bumper dividend payments and posted a more than 50% increase in annual operating profit, while Derwent London was up as it proposed a special dividend and said net asset value rose in 2017. FTSE 250 challenger bank Virgin Money rallied after it reported a 28% increase in underlying full-year profit amid robust customer demand and growth across its core products. Greggs gained after well-received full-year numbers, while Draxpowered ahead as its full-year core earnings beat expectations. Speciality chemical company Croda International declined even as it posted a record full-year profit as sales grew thanks to a strong performance across sectors and regions. Investors were also wading through results from Inchcape,James Fisher, Morgan Advanced Materials, Elementis andCoats Group in the morning's blizzard of corporate news. Market Movers FTSE 100 (UKX) 7,318.27 0.39% FTSE 250 (MCX) 19,950.72 0.62% techMARK (TASX) 3,335.79 0.15% FTSE 100 - Risers Sky (SKY) 1,307.50p 18.33% Persimmon (PSN) 2,778.00p 11.66% Barratt Developments (BDEV) 565.60p 2.61% Berkeley Group Holdings (The) (BKG) 3,959.00p 2.51% Taylor Wimpey (TW.) 196.80p 2.39% ITV (ITV) 174.85p 1.98% Standard Chartered (STAN) 842.60p 1.64% Mediclinic International (MDC) 609.40p 1.57% Direct Line Insurance Group (DLG) 394.60p 1.54% easyJet (EZJ) 1,688.50p 1.44% FTSE 100 - Fallers Fresnillo (FRES) 1,283.00p -3.68% Pearson (PSON) 701.80p -1.71% Croda International (CRDA) 4,485.00p -1.39% NMC Health (NMC) 3,490.00p -0.96% GKN (GKN) 427.90p -0.49% Glencore (GLEN) 399.45p -0.49% HSBC Holdings (HSBA) 718.30p -0.43% BAE Systems (BA.) 575.40p -0.38% Carnival (CCL) 4,816.00p -0.27% Halma (HLMA) 1,225.00p -0.24% FTSE 250 - Risers Provident Financial (PFG) 775.00p 31.80% Drax Group (DRX) 253.80p 6.55% Coats Group (COA) 78.40p 4.95% Spirax-Sarco Engineering (SPX) 5,920.00p 4.78% AA (AA.) 78.48p 3.92% Virgin Money Holdings (UK) (VM.) 274.00p 3.59% Ascential (ASCL) 413.80p 3.30% Vectura Group (VEC) 76.30p 2.55% Bellway (BWY) 3,221.00p 2.35% Hiscox Limited (DI) (HSX) 1,399.00p 2.34% FTSE 250 - Fallers Meggitt (MGGT) 455.90p -2.29% Renewi (RWI) 92.00p -2.02% Pershing Square Holdings Ltd NPV (PSH) 954.00p -1.65% Syncona Limited NPV (SYNC) 196.20p -1.60% Sanne Group (SNN) 615.00p -1.60% Sequoia Economic Infrastructure Income Fund Limited (SEQI)105.00p -1.41% Caledonia Investments (CLDN) 2,742.50p -0.99% Moneysupermarket.com Group (MONY) 273.50p -0.91% Lancashire Holdings Limited (LRE) 552.00p -0.90% Centamin (DI) (CEY) 154.75p -0.64% Crypto Pizza Evening with Clem Chambers, CEO of Online Blockchain In May 2010, programmer Laszlo Hanyecz bought two pizzas from Papa Johns for 10,000 bitcoins. Had he kept the coins, as of today they would be worth a cool $86,000,000. Join us on Wednesday 14 March for a crypto pizza 'Bite' on Clem Chambers, the CEO of the first London-listed British blockchain company - Click Here To Register For Free  Market Analysis 23/02/2018 Today’s highlights: Fed minutes push global markets down Wall Street closes lower: A volatile session in the US yesterday, as leading indices started the day with sharp gains, but eventually closed lower. The trend reversal occurred following the release of minutes from the latest FOMC meeting, which showed the Fed could be planning more rate hikes. Despite the negative momentum, some stocks continued to show gains, such as Domino’s Pizza, which climbed more than 4% to reach a new all-time high. Asia follows Wall Street’s lead: Top indices in Asia, such as the Nikkei and China50, were seen lower this morning. Read More... US close: Markets finish ahead as Quarles talks up economy Trading in US stocks finished firmly on Monday as investors on Wall Street shook off worries about the recent inflation picture and rising interest rates, while thumbing through a slew of data releases ahead of Jerome Powell's first testimony as Federal Reserve chairman. The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished up 1.58% at 25,709.27 and the S&P 500 was ahead 1.18% at 2,779.60, while the Nasdaq 100 ended the day up 1.34%. Fedspeak was in focus as the newest member of the central bank, Randal Quarles, all but confirmed the path ahead for rate hikes, telling the National Association for Business Economics that it had been “quite some time” since the economy was looking so healthy. ADVERTISING “I am fairly optimistic about the current state of the economy,” he said. “Along many dimensions, it has been quite some time since the economic environment has looked as favorable as it does now. “With my current economic outlook, I anticipate that further gradual increases in the policy rate will be appropriate to both sustain a healthy labor market and stabilize inflation around our 2 percent objective.” Vice chair for supervision Quarles did note some hurdles to overcome, including ongoing weakness in productivity growth. Earlier, St Louis Fed President James Bullard gave a speech at the National Association of Business Economics in Washington where he said it would be a smart move for the Federal Reserve to periodically review its inflation framework. However, any change would require a firm guarantee that a new set up would provide benefits over the current 2% target, he said. In order to change the framework, "you would have to get buy-in from the political side. You would have to get buy-in from the larger financial community,” Bullard said. Several Fed chiefs had previously called for a review of how the Fed sets its inflation target. “That is a good thing to do and I am hopeful the committee will go ahead and do it," Bullard explained. The week's main attraction still lay ahead, on Tuesday, when Fed chairman Jerome Powell was set to deliver his first congressional testimony. Investors would be looking for any clues on the pace of future monetary tightening given the split in the market between those who expected the US central bank could hike rates four times over the course of 2018 and those who were still anticipating only three hikes. Rebecca O'Keeffe, head of investment at Interactive Investor, said Powell had a baptism of fire in the three weeks since he took on his new role, with markets experiencing huge volatility on fears that inflation will see the Fed raise rates more aggressively than anticipated. “Current market valuations were one of the main talking points from Warren Buffett’s annual letter, as he gave investors his view of the world. “His efforts to deplete his burgeoning war chest and pull the trigger on a major deal in 2017 were all scuppered by his inability to find anything that he believed offered a 'sensible purchase price'. “For the ultimate deal maker and value investor to conclude that the market is not offering any attractive buying opportunities is a potentially worrying sign for investors.” On the macroeconomic side of things, new US home sales fell to an annualised rate of 593,000 for January after an upwardly-revised 643,000 for December, against consensus expectations for 647,000. Despite the miss, Ian Shepherdson at Pantheon Macroeconomics was quick to point out how net revisions of 42,000 to the prior three months of data had largely offset that. "January sales were well below the pace implied by the lagged mortgage applications numbers, about 675,000, so we look for a hefty rebound in February sales. “Any weakening on the back of the rise in mortgage rates likely won't be visible until late spring at the earliest. “In the meantime, inventory remains tight - though it is rising - pushing up prices by about 5% y/y," he said. Elsewhere, the Chicago Fed's index of national economic activity showed activity relaxing to a positive 0.12 in January from a downwardly revised but positive 0.14 in December, owing mainly to a slowdown in factory activity. The index, a measure of activity levels in the US economy, had been moving in a narrow band over recent months, with October's reading of positive 0.87 being the highest for the volatile index since a positive 0.94 was recorded in December 2006. Its less-volatile three-month moving average fell to positive 0.12 in January from positive 0.26 in December. In corporate news, Dean Foods tumbled 13.03% after the company fell short of earnings estimates for the fourth quarter and offered guidance below consensus Hibbett Sports dropped off 2.18%, despite its fourth-quarter earnings per share beating analyst expectations, while General Electric added 1.1% after it nominated three new candidates to its board of directors as the size of the board is cut to 12 directors from 17. UPS shares picked up 2.33% following news the parcel delivery service is suing the European Union's antitrust watchdog for €1.74bn over its decision to block a planned merger with TNT Express. Dow Jones - Risers Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) $78.84 3.93% Pfizer Inc. (PFE) $37.09 3.78% Nike Inc. (NKE) $69.65 3.75% Travelers Company Inc. (TRV) $142.58 3.59% Visa Inc. (V) $124.59 3.50% 3M Co. (MMM) $244.14 3.45% JP Morgan Chase & Co. (JPM) $118.77 3.30% Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO) $45.36 3.09% Unitedhealth Group Inc. (UNH) $234.06 3.07% Intel Corp. (INTC) $49.11 2.89% Dow Jones - Fallers Home Depot Inc. (HD) $188.46 0.06% Walmart Inc. (WMT) $93.12 0.38% Caterpillar Inc. (CAT) $163.65 0.79% Procter & Gamble Co. (PG) $81.63 0.98% Dowdupont Inc. (DWDP) $74.05 1.09% General Electric Co. (GE) $14.65 1.10% Coca-Cola Co. (KO) $44.03 1.17% United Technologies Corp. (UTX) $135.47 1.41% Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) $95.42 1.45% Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) $132.07 1.66% S&P 500 - Risers Noble Energy Inc. (NBL) $31.43 6.94% HP Inc (HPQ) $23.46 6.01% Newfield Exploration Co (NFX) $24.86 5.97% QUALCOMM Inc. (QCOM) $66.98 5.78% First Solar Inc. (FSLR) $65.10 5.36% Macy's Inc. (M) $27.45 4.89% Discovery Communications Inc. Class A (DISCA) $25.17 4.83% Discovery Communications Inc. Class C (DISCK) $23.83 4.79% Pinnacle West Capital Corp. (PNW) $80.28 4.61% Newmont Mining Corp. (NEM) $39.32 4.49% S&P 500 - Fallers Citizens Financial Group, Inc. (CFG) $44.54 -4.07% Mattel Inc. (MAT) $16.08 -3.37% CF Industries Holdings Inc. (CF) $42.66 -3.29% General Mills Inc. (GIS) $51.42 -2.94% FMC Corp. (FMC) $83.66 -2.41% TripAdvisor Inc. (TRIP) $41.45 -2.01% American International Group Inc. (AIG) $59.01 -1.76% Gap Inc. (GPS) $32.13 -1.71% Tractor Supply Company (TSCO) $64.86 -1.52% Wyndham Worldwide Corp. (WYN) $118.02 -1.44% Nasdaq 100 - Risers QUALCOMM Inc. (QCOM) $66.98 5.78% KLA-Tencor Corp. (KLAC) $114.67 3.80% Applied Materials Inc. (AMAT) $58.81 3.16% Micron Technology Inc. (MU) $47.98 3.12% Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO) $45.36 3.09% American Airlines Group (AAL) $55.00 3.02% Intel Corp. (INTC) $49.11 2.89% Netflix Inc. (NFLX) $294.16 2.88% Lam Research Corp. (LRCX) $198.43 2.76% Take-Two Interactive Software Inc. (TTWO) $114.58 2.62% Nasdaq 100 - Fallers Ulta Salon, Cosmetics & Fragrance Inc. (ULTA) $198.93 -3.95% Liberty Interactive Corporation - Series A Liberty Ventures (LVNTA) $54.51 -2.22% Charter Communications Inc. (CHTR) $358.02 -1.93% DENTSPLY Sirona Inc. (XRAY) $57.05 -1.08% NetEase Inc. Ads (NTES) $308.56 -0.99% Biogen Inc (BIIB) $290.01 -0.95% Idexx Laboratories Inc. (IDXX) $186.09 -0.81% Ctrip.Com International Ltd. Ads (CTRP) $47.09 -0.76% Symantec Corp. (SYMC) $27.23 -0.73% Shire Plc Ads (SHPG) $126.32 -0.60% Looking for early access to investment opportunities? Make your own informed investment decisions. Get the right tools and information at Master Investor Show 2018. Register for free today Cryptocurrencies Report Top Cryptocurrencies # Name Market Cap($) Price(%) Change Price Graph(3m) 1 Bitcoin (BTC) 181,214,836,784 10,713.24 +3.86% 2 Ethereum (ETH) 87,551,820,315 890.25 +2.68% 3 Ripple (XRP) 37,735,632,299 0.94805 +1.91% 4 Bitcoin Cash / BCC (BCH) 22,011,418,650 1,289.5 +3.93% 5 Litecoin (LTC) 12,341,360,446 220.7 +0.99% 6 NEO (NEO) 9,371,440,000 142.28 +5.9% Atlantic Advisory - Share Tips of the Year 2018 Download Our Latest Report Here Losses can exceed deposits Tuesday newspaper round-up: Brexit transition, energy price cap, Aston Martin, Carillion A senior Conservative MP has criticised the government for failing to make progress on a transition deal to smooth Britain’s exit from the EU, warning that businesses could relocate jobs outside of the UK without urgent action. Nicky Morgan, the chair of the Commons Treasury select committee, said businesses were “crying out” for details of a proposed period to cushion Britain’s withdrawal from the EU from March 2019, calling on ministers to swiftly resolve their differences and reach a deal with Brussels or face damaging consequences. - Guardian A wave of job cuts across the energy sector could be an unintended consequence of the Government’s price cap as companies scramble to cut costs. The Government on Monday introduced the Domestic Gas and Electricity (Tariff Cap) Bill in Parliament, which tasks industry regulator Ofgem with creating a cap on the most expensive standard tariffs until 2020 with a potential extension to 2023. - Telegraph Selling 5,117 luxury sports cars in 2017, 58 per cent more than in the year before, has sent Aston Martin roaring back into the black. The carmaker’s best performance since the financial crisis also has put it in pole position for a stock market flotation. - The Times The board of Carillion was in crisis as early as last May, according to minutes of a directors’ meeting during which a senior lawyer warned them that they may be guilty of misleading the stock market. Yesterday it emerged, in disclosures from the parliamentary inquiry into how Carillion came to enter compulsory liquidation last month, that at a meeting of the board on May 9 last year the company’s accounting of several key contracts “seemed to ring alarm bells and raise red flags”. - The Times The Mayor of London Sadiq Khan has hit out at the Government for delays over revealing foreign owners of UK property, calling the progress on a public register “bitterly disappointing” as he suggested the current lack of transparency could be aiding terrorism and other crime. Mr Khan has written to Greg Clark, the Business Secretary, asking him to speed up the process of implementing a new public register which would expose people who benefit from property controlled by overseas companies and other legal entities. - Telegraph Britain is in danger of missing the European Union’s carbon dioxide reduction targets because drivers have been put off buying diesel cars, which can be 20 per cent more fuel-efficient than petrol models. The car industry has warned that, in the absence of improved sales of electric cars and low or zero-emission hybrids, the government must stop its “anti-diesel agenda” if it wishes to get the sector back on target for helping to deliver a greener economy. - The Times CO2 emissions from the average new car sold in the UK rose last year for the first time since 2000, according to an industry report, raising fears that the country will fail to meet its climate change targets as consumers buy bigger vehicles and turn against diesel. Although motor manufacturers said new models coming on to the market were on average about 12% more fuel-efficient than their older versions, campaigners said a higher proportion of gas-guzzling vehicles leaving the forecourt had led to a 0.8% increase in the average amount of C02 generated per new car. - Guardian A wave of job cuts across the energy sector could be an unintended consequence of the Government’s price cap as companies scramble to cut costs. The Government today introduced the Domestic Gas and Electricity (Tariff Cap) Bill in Parliament, which tasks industry regulator Ofgem with creating a cap on the most expensive standard tariffs until 2020 with a potential extension to 2023. - Telegraph The evidence underpinning ministers’ plans to cap the energy bills of millions of people has been slammed as “weak and confused” by the government’s own watchdog. As the government laid the legislation for the cap in parliament, the regulatory policy committee delivered a withering verdict on the case for a measure that Theresa May said was necessary to stop “rip-off” tariffs. - Guardian Fitness band maker Fitbit lost money in 2017 after selling fewer devices during the year, as it warned over shifting consumer tastes. The results prompted shares in Fitbit to slip as much as 14pc in after-hours trading. The company has lost more than 80pc of its value since floating in 2015. - Telegraph Johnnie Walker is rolling out a female version of its whisky in the US – Jane Walker - that owner Diageo hopes will widen the appeal of the product while celebrating women. A limited edition run of its 12-year-old Black Label blended whisky will feature a striding woman on the label rather than the top-hatted man normally associated with the brand. - Guardian In a significant blow to the fortunes of disgraced “Pharma Bro” Martin Shkreli a judge ruled Monday that he was responsible for nearly $10.5m in losses in a securities fraud scheme. The decision could result in a harsher sentence for the eccentric former pharmaceutical company CEO who faces up to 20 years in prison. - Guardian   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