Latest News In Stock Market Investment Research – Jan 08, 2010

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Aer Lingus expects small operating profit in H2

8 Jan 2010 at 2:51am

LONDON (MarketWatch) — Irish airline Aer Lingus on Friday said it expects to report a small operating profit in the second half of 2009 thanks to better-than-expected average ticket prices as a result of lower capacity. Still, the airline predicted that demand would remain “soft” in the first six months of 2010 and decided to remove two of its five aircraft based at London’s Gatwick airport. It also deferred the delivery of two new Airbus A320s to April and May 2011 from October and November 2010. Aer Lingus also said that passenger numbers rose 9% in December. The number of short-haul passengers increased 13.2% while that of long-haul passengers declined 19.8%. The load factor, a measure of how full an airline’s planes are, improved by 2.5 percentage points to 71.9%.

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U.K. producer prices up 0.5%

8 Jan 2010 at 2:36am

LONDON (MarketWatch) — U.K. producer prices rose 0.5% in December on a monthly basis, reflecting mainly reflecting price rises in other manufactured products, transport equipment, food and electrical products. Year-on-year, PPI rose 3.5%.

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Thales upgraded to buy from neutral at UBS

8 Jan 2010 at 2:17am

MADRID (MarketWatch) — Thales was upgraded to buy from neutral and its price target lifted to 42 euros from 30 euros on Friday at UBS, on valuations. UBS expects the French-headquartered defense giant to return to profitability in 2011, and says the stock is too cheap to ignore. Double-digit margins, though, are unlikely owing to pricing pressures for Thales. “Nevertheless, we believe that Thales’ level of profitability can improve to at least historic levels as execution issues are overcome,” said UBS.

Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.


Man Group cut to equal-weight by Morgan Stanley

8 Jan 2010 at 2:09am

LONDON (MarketWatch) — Man Group was cut to equal weight from overweight by Morgan Stanley, which also cut its price target by 15% and removed the hedge-fund manager from its best ideas portfolio. While the broker likes Man’s exposure to a number of growth areas – distribution in Asia, capabilities in onshore to complement offshore structured products and benefit from UCITS III opportunities, managed account infrastructure in the institutional space, it sees pressure on sales and earnings that are not fully reflected in market numbers. It prefers Schroders as it said its Luxembourg range of funds make it the best positioned to see continued benefit from recovering risk appetite and investor thirst for yield.

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Barclays, Deutsche Bank upgraded to buy at UBS

8 Jan 2010 at 2:02am

MADRID (MarketWatch) — Barclays was upgraded to buy from neutral on Friday at UBS, based on attractive valuations. UBS said while the external environment remains challenging, the moves Barclays has taken to recapitalize and the earnings it has achieved despite headwinds leaves it better positioned to face those challenges. Deutsche Bank was also upgraded to buy owing to “ambitious, yet credible” 2011 targets and attractive valuations as well. The market is too cautious on the bank’s potential earnings improvements, which should be driven by cost savings and lower loan loss provisions, said UBS. Overall, UBS said it is now moving to overweight investment banks in Europe, with an improving revenue picture, but staying underweight Spanish banks on margin worries and the housing crisis.

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Veolia added to conviction buy list at Goldman

8 Jan 2010 at 1:39am

MADRID (MarketWatch) — Veolia Environnement was added to the conviction buy list on Friday at Goldman Sachs, which said the French water and waste management group is geared well towards an economic recovery. The investment bank also reinstated its rating on Centrica with conviction buy, and replaced it with Shanks — downgraded to neutral from buy — on its U.K. relative value list. In an overall note on European utilities, Goldman said it expects strong economic growth to lead to higher medium-term power prices and underpin economically sensitive companies with exposure to waste. Economic growth is a key risk for the sector, said Goldman.

Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.


Europe stocks climb before employment data

8 Jan 2010 at 1:34am

LONDON (MarketWatch) — European stocks were off to a stronger start Friday ahead of nonfarm payrolls data in the U.S. as well as euro-zone unemployment data. Early movers included Veolia Environnement , up 6% on a Goldman Sachs upgrade, and Cimpor , down 2.2% after rejecting CSN’s takeover bid. Barclays also rose, helped by a UBS upgrade. The FTSE 100 rose 0.3% to 5,545 and the German DAX added 0.4% to 6,044. (Corrects spelling of Cimpor.)

Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.


NYSE Euronext equity trades drop, derivatives rise

8 Jan 2010 at 1:17am

LONDON (MarketWatch) — Stock exchange operator NYSE Euronext said Friday that December trading volumes were mixed, with equity volumes declining in Europe and the U.S., while derivatives volumes rose sharply. The group said U.S. cash equity trading volumes fell 30.5% from a year ago to 2.3 billion shares a day and European equity trades fell 9.1% to an average of 1.1 million transactions a day. On the derivatives side, the European business traded an average of 4 million futures and options contracts a day, up 40.8% from last year. And in the U.S. daily equity derivatives trading volumes were up 92.2% at 3.1 million contracts.

Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.


Rank Group sees upper-end 2009 earnings

8 Jan 2010 at 12:54am

LONDON (MarketWatch) — U.K. bingo and casino operator Rank Group said it expects 2009 adjusted earnings per share at the upper end of analysts’ forecasts of 6.8 pence to 8.1 pence a share, citing resilient trading performance, effective cost control measures and current low cost of financing. Over the 12 weeks to Dec. 27, revenue grew 6%, or 2% on a comparable basis, helped by Rank Interactive and Grosvenor Casinos performance. Though the outlook for consumer confidence is unclear, Rank says it expects to progress in 2010.

Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.


Mitchells & Butlers comparable sales up 3.3%

8 Jan 2010 at 12:51am

LONDON (MarketWatch) — U.K. pub operator Mitchells & Butlers said Friday that comparable sales in the first 14 weeks of its financial year rose 3.3% and that net margins had improved by 1.5 percentage points due to lower food cost inflation, improved productivity and lower energy costs. For the period, which ended Jan. 2, the company said comparable food sales were up 5.7% and comparable drink sales rose 2%. Mitchells & Butlers said it is still cautious about the outlook for consumer spending, especially in the second half of the year.

Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.


Recruiter Michael Page gross profit drops 24%

8 Jan 2010 at 12:47am

LONDON (MarketWatch) — U.K.-based recruitment firm Michael Page International said fourth-quarter gross profit fell 24% to 90.6 million pounds, which was a 10% increase on the third quarter. It said there was almost the same operating profit in the fourth quarter as produced in the previous nine months of the year. The firm saw sequential growth in all its main markets, save for the U.K. “While we believe the outlook for the U.K. remains challenging, we anticipate a continuation of the recovery in our other regions, which now account for 70% of our gross profit,” the firm said.

Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.


Spyker makes revised offer for GM’s Saab unit

8 Jan 2010 at 12:45am

LONDON (MarketWatch) — Dutch sports car maker Spyker Cars said Friday that it has made a revised offer to General Motors for the acquisition of Saab. “We have continued a constructive dialogue with GM over the acquisition of Saab,” said CEO Victor Muller. “We believe the Saab brand has lots of potential and would be keen to close a deal as quickly as possible,” he added. GM CEO Ed Whitacre said on Wednesday that he doesn’t see a sale of the business taking place before GM shuts down the brand. The U.S. group had given potential bidders until Dec. 31 to make an offer.

Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.


BT services chief quits, to be replaced by EDS pro

8 Jan 2010 at 12:42am

LONDON (MarketWatch) — BT Group said Hanif Lalani is leaving after running the company’s global services division to pursue “personal business interests” and is stepping down from the board immediately. BT credited Lalani with stabilizing the division and then delivering improved financial results over sequential quarters. He’s being replaced by Jeff Kelly, who had run the Americas unit of EDS.

Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.


RBS selling fund unit to Aberdeen

8 Jan 2010 at 12:38am

LONDON (MarketWatch) — Royal Bank of Scotland said Friday that it agreed to sell certain fund management assets to Aberdeen Asset Management for 84.7 million pounds ($135 million). The sale encompasses the banks funds of funds division, which has assets under management of 13.5 billion pounds. Separately Aberdeen said in a trading update that it had net outflows of 2.6 billion pounds in the three months to Dec. 31 as 3.4 billion pounds of inflows to equities was more than offset by outflows in fixed income and money markets. Assets under management at the end of the period totalled 144.1 billion pounds and were down 1.4% from the end of September.

Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.


Alabama Crimson Tide wins BCS Championship, 37-21

7 Jan 2010 at 10:41pm

LOS ANGELES (MarketWatch) — Alabama’s Crimson Tide returned to the top of college football Thursday with a 37-21 victory in the BCS National Championship against the Texas Longhorns. The action in Pasadena, Calif., included a late Alabama fumble recovery at the Texas 3-yard line, the Associated Press reported. The victory gives Tide coach Nick Saban the distinction of being the first to lead two different schools to BCS titles — Alamaba and LSU — according to reports.

Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.

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January 08 2010 02:24 am | Stock Market News

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