Morning Euro Markets Bulletin

ADVFN  Morning Euro Markets Bulletin Daily world financial news Thursday, 08 March 2018 09:32:07 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: FTSE flat as Aviva, ex-divs weigh ahead of ECB meeting FTSE 100 Euronext Dax perf CAC 40 Please click on the images to view our interactive charts Equity indices in London and the pound were both flat on Thursday morning, ahead of the latest monetary policy statement from the European Central Bank later and as the US began to make concessions on trade.  Stocks in Asia finished on the front foot after stocks on Wall Street pared early losses overnight on reports that Canada and Mexico could get exemptions from Trump’s planned import tariffs on steel and aluminium. At 0843 GMT, the FTSE 100 was down by less than one point at 7,157.79 as a host of stocks went ex-dividend as usual on Thursday, while the FTSE 250 mid-cap index was up 35 points at just over 19,800. The pound was flat on the dollar at 1.3890 and the euro at 1.1196. On the simmering US trade tension, CMC Markets analyst Michael Hewson said: "We should get the final details in the next day or so with reports that President Trump will announce the details either today or tomorrow, while markets will also be paying attention as to who will replace Mr Cohn. There were concerns that Peter Navarro, one of President Trump’s more hawkish trade advisors might be in the frame for the role, however he appeared to rule himself out yesterday." With little else in terms of economic catalysts on International Women's Day, analysts said the ECB interest rate decision at lunchtime and president Mario Draghi’s speech soon after will be keenly watched by traders. The latest ECB staff projections will also provide some grist for the market mill and Draghi's Q&A session will be scrutinised for any "subtle shift in rhetoric" as to what might happen after September this year when the current bond buying programme is due to end, said Lee Wild at broker Interactive Investor. The ECB rate announcement is at 1245 GMT, while the press conference is at 1330 GMT. Back in the UK, investors were digesting the latest RICS residential survey, which showed the balance of surveyors reporting that house prices have risen over the last three months fell to zero in February from +8 in January, below the consensus +7. The new buyer enquiries balance fell to -16, from -11 in January, remaining below zero for the 11th consecutive month. "The downturn in housing market activity accelerated in February, indicating that the stimulus to demand from the Chancellor’s stamp duty reforms has been outweighed by the prospect of further increases in interest rates," said economist Samuel Tombs at Pantheon Macroeconomics. He noted that new buyer demand has not fallen for such a protracted period since the 2008/09 financial crisis. In corporate news, Aviva was down despite a bullish full year report. Earnings per share grew 7% and the dividend 18% and the life insurer upgraded its growth targets to aim above 5% EPS growth from 2018, with 55-60% to be paid out in dividends. G4S fell 3.5% even though the security company reported a 6.5% rise in underlying annual profit and that the outlook for its business was good. Estate agent Countrywide tanked after it revealed it had entered 2018 with pipeline significantly below 2017. The first half will see lower EBITDA and it is unlikely to be recovered in the second. Randgold Resources fell after a meeting with the president of the Democratic Republic of Congo produced little assurances for mining companies over their concerns about the country's new mining code. Domino's Pizza UK & Ireland scooted higher as sales increased 15% but profits only by 10%. UK sales in the first eight weeks of 2018 were said to have got off to a strong start. Euromoney Institutional Investor was little moved after completing the acquisition of research outfit Extel from WeConvene. Britvic was one of the top risers after being upgraded to 'overweight' by Morgan Stanley after a material pull-back in the shares lately. Persimmon led the fallers as it was one of the band of stocks going ex-dividend, also including BHP, CRH, Land Securities, Standard Chartered and Thomas Cook.   Market Movers FTSE 100 (UKX) 7,150.11 -0.11% FTSE 250 (MCX) 19,780.43 0.03% techMARK (TASX) 3,356.58 0.38% FTSE 100 - Risers Associated British Foods (ABF) 2,645.00p 2.32% ITV (ITV) 155.00p 2.01% Rolls-Royce Holdings (RR.) 938.00p 1.52% WPP (WPP) 1,224.00p 1.12% Reckitt Benckiser Group (RB.) 5,665.00p 0.73% Informa (INF) 715.80p 0.68% Sage Group (SGE) 687.40p 0.64% Johnson Matthey (JMAT) 3,160.00p 0.64% Scottish Mortgage Inv Trust (SMT) 468.35p 0.63% InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) 4,524.00p 0.58% FTSE 100 - Fallers Evraz (EVR) 434.20p -4.59% Persimmon (PSN) 2,522.00p -4.58% BHP Billiton (BLT) 1,396.40p -3.27% Aviva (AV.) 494.40p -2.60% CRH (CRH) 2,420.00p -1.79% Smurfit Kappa Group (SKG) 3,168.00p -1.55% Anglo American (AAL) 1,732.00p -1.53% Standard Chartered (STAN) 771.90p -1.25% Randgold Resources Ltd. (RRS) 5,916.00p -1.07% Rio Tinto (RIO) 3,701.50p -1.04% FTSE 250 - Risers Domino's Pizza Group (DOM) 344.26p 8.29% Britvic (BVIC) 724.50p 6.23% Ultra Electronics Holdings (ULE) 1,378.00p 2.45% Pagegroup (PAGE) 522.50p 2.35% Euromoney Institutional Investor (ERM) 1,254.00p 2.28% Intermediate Capital Group (ICP) 1,075.00p 1.70% Stobart Group Ltd. (STOB) 231.50p 1.54% BCA Marketplace (BCA) 157.00p 1.16% Cineworld Group (CINE) 228.40p 1.15% Spire Healthcare Group (SPI) 216.20p 1.12% FTSE 250 - Fallers Alfa Financial Software Holdings (ALFA) 389.50p -18.51% AA (AA.) 78.80p -7.69% John Laing Group (JLG) 259.40p -5.40% Jupiter Fund Management (JUP) 496.70p -4.33% Dixons Carphone (DC.) 188.20p -2.06% Capita (CPI) 156.25p -1.82% Ladbrokes Coral Group (LCL) 161.40p -1.74% Vedanta Resources (VED) 730.80p -1.69% IP Group (IPO) 111.60p -1.41% Caledonia Investments (CLDN) 2,713.30p -1.33% 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  US close: Wall Street mixed as investors look towards nonfarms Wall Street ended Wednesday on a mixed note, as investors reacted to news that the White House's chief economic advisor, Gary Cohn, has resigned, reigniting fears of a trade war. The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished down 0.33% at 24,801.36 and the S&P 500 lost 0.05% to 2,726.80, while the Nasdaq 100managed gains of 0.24% to close at 6,929.39. Cohn, an advocate of free trade widely seen as a calming influence on Trump, quit over the president's decision to impose tariffs on steel and aluminium imports. “The implication is that without the restraining influence of Cohn on Trump, the president will now have a free hand to press ahead with further tariffs and generally up the ante on trade,” noted Neil Wilson, senior market analyst at ETX Capital. “Clearly he fought back on trade and lost. “This in itself does not bode well for risk despite that small boost we saw on news that North Korea could consider de-nuking.” According to a Bloomberg report, Trump's administration was considering a wide range of import tariffs on Chinese goods from shoes and clothing to consumer electronics, and a clampdown on Chinese investments in the US. The European Union responded to Trump's plans on Wednesday, with commissioner for trade Cecilia Malmstrom saying that the EU was working hard to ensure any tariffs imposed to comply with WTO rules. “We have made it clear that a move that hurts the EU and puts thousands of European jobs in jeopardy will be met with a firm and proportionate response,” said Malmstrom on Twitter. She added to that at a press conference, saying that the EU was discussing which US products would be hit with tariffs if Trump goes ahead with his plans. Higher import duties on bourbon whisky, peanut butter, cranberries, orange juice, steel, and industrial products were reportedly being considered. On the data front, the ADP employment report - widely seen as a precursor to the important non-farm payrolls report on Friday - showed that private-sector employment remained robust throughout February. Employers added 235,000 staff, beating economists' expectations for an increase of 205,000, making February the fourth month in a row of job gains topping 200,000 or higher. Separately, the Commerce Department reported that the US trade deficit increased to a near decade high in January, with the country's shortfall with China widening sharply. That was seen as indicative that Trump's so-called ‘America First’ trade policies were unlikely to have any real impact on the deficit, with the president continuing to claim the United States was being taken advantage of by its trading partners. Commerce revealed that the trade gap had jumped a further 5% to $56.6bn in January - the highest level since October 2008 - exceeding economists' expectations of an increase to $55.1bn, partly due to commodity price increases. Lastly, productivity - a measure of the goods and services Americans produced on an hourly basis - was flat in the fourth quarter of 2017, according to the Labour Department. That replaced the agency's prior estimate of a 0.1% decline for non-farm business productivity. In corporate news, shares of accounting and tax specialist chain H&R Block were ahead 11.49% after the company posted a bigger-than-expected third-quarter loss on Tuesday, while offbeat fashion play Urban Outfitters eked out gains of 0.24% by the end of the session, on the back of its fourth-quarter earnings a day earlier. Elsewhere, technology company Inovalon was ahead 2.42% as it announced the acquisition of Ability Network for $1.2bn. Looking for early access to investment opportunities? Make your own informed investment decisions. Get the right tools and information at Master Investor Show 2018. Register for free today Cryptocurrencies Report Top Cryptocurrencies # Name Market Cap($) Price(%) Change Price Graph(3m) 1 Plus One Coin (PLUS1) 323,839 0.025681 +1.05% 2 Bitcoin (BTC) 169,045,362,149 9,961.4 +0.65% 3 Ethereum (ETH) 74,749,282,381 759.74 +1.36% 4 Ripple (XRP) 34,449,669,571 0.86293 +1.4% 5 Bitcoin Cash / BCC (BCH) 18,636,291,048 1,091.71 +0.43% 6 Litecoin (LTC) 10,308,629,760 185.2 -0.22% Atlantic Advisory - Share Tips of the Year 2018 Download Our Latest Report Here Losses can exceed deposits Thursday newspaper round-up: Uber, AA, Amazon, Carillion, Lloyds TSB Uber has confirmed that it is looking to secure a $1.25bn (£900m) leveraged loan, less than a month after revealing that its losses ballooned to $4.5bn last year. The ride-hailing company is thought to be contacting loan investors directly over the financing, which was first reported by Bloomberg, with Uber expected to meet with investors on Friday. – Telegraph Uber has confirmed that it is looking to secure a $1.25bn (£900m) leveraged loan, less than a month after revealing that its losses ballooned to $4.5bn last year. The ride-hailing company is thought to be contacting loan investors directly over the financing, which was first reported by Bloomberg, with Uber expected to meet with investors on Friday. – Telegraph Amazon said it was working to fix an issue with its Alexa-enabled devices causing them to spontaneously burst into laughter. Amazon confirmed that it was aware of the problem on Wednesday night, in news first reported by The Verge, though did not provide further details of what was causing it or how long it would take to fix. - Telegraph Lloyds TSB agreed to “remove” £800,000 of fees due to be paid to PWC from its 2008 accounts in order to avoid breaching internal rules governing auditor independence, according to documents revealed in a High Court battle. The bank indicated that it would move fees due for “independent business reviews” of troubled companies conducted by PWC to a previous accounting period so that it could keep awarding the accountancy firm lucrative work without breaching a £2 million limit imposed by Lloyds’ audit committee, internal emails suggest. – The Times The former boss of the AA has filed a claim in the High Court alleging wrongful dismissal against the roadside services group and accusing it of having little regard for his mental wellbeing. Bob Mackenzie, 65, is seeking damages after he was sacked as executive chairman last July for gross misconduct. Mr Mackenzie punched Mike Lloyd, head of AA insurance, at an evening work event at the Penny Hill Park Hotel in Bagshot, Surrey. It came after a day when a disagreement emerged over a plan to split off the insurance business and merge it with Hastings, a rival. Mr Mackenzie did not approve of the plan, now abandoned, and tempers are understood to have flared during a conversation in the bar. – The Times A leading shareholder in Carillion is calling for the break-up of the Big Four accounting firms, in the wake of the company’s collapse in January. Kiltearn Partners criticised the quality of Carillion’s audited reports yesterday before a Commons joint select committee that is investigating the failed outsourcer. – The Times Women in the UK effectively work for free for more than two months a year because of the country’s gender pay gap, according to the TUC. In a report published to coincide with International Women’s Day, the trade union body called on the government to require employers to carry out pay audits and produce action plans to close the gap in their workplace. – Guardian Next is facing a demand for up to £30m in back pay from thousands of mainly female shop-floor staff in the first major equal pay claim against a fashion retailer. More than 300 workers have registered to participate in a claim that was filed at the conciliation service Acas on Wednesday. They say they are paid £7.50 an hour or an average £2 an hour less than mainly male warehouse workers who they view as doing work of equal value. The warehouse staff also have access to more lucrative bonuses. - 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. 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