Cantor Day Ahead

Cantor Opening Call The FTSE is seen starting the day up around 20 points

UK Corporate Announcements Home Retail announces H1 sales of £2.53bn down 1% and states that a review identifies it needs to invest in its Argos unit and targets £4.5bn of Argos sales by full year 2018 and continues to plan cautiously National Express states that the outlook for 2013 remains challenging but that it remains on target to meet its forecasts British American Tobacco reports nine month revenues of £517bn up 4% and sees another solid year of good earnings growth despite the challenging market conditions and volumes being under pressure Punch Taverns announces a full year EBITDA of £238m from £258m and states that its restructuring will deliver investor value

UK Market News UK business press details on how Mervyn King indicated yesterday that the Bank of England tactics were starting to lose traction, and on the quite rapid market sell-off yesterday which saw the market give back the recent weeks gains and as the market continues to struggle to push back up through the psychologically important 6,000 area The FT writes on how some major shareholders in Trinity Mirror are calling for an investigation into alleged phone hacking at its titles BHP Billiton is reportedly considering the sale of its Pinto Valley Copper Mine in Arizona

UK Analyst Upgrades Eurotunnel Pt Raised 1% To Eu7.5 At Exane; Kept At Outperform G4S Raised To Outperform From Sector Perform At Rbc Capital

UK Analyst Cuts Aggreko Cut to Outperform from Top Pick at RBC Capital Wpp Removed From Ubs’S Most Preferred List Wpp Cut To Neutral Vs Buy At Ubs

UK Insider Buying None Detailed

UK Insider Selling None Detailed

Major European Companies Reporting SAP, Elan, Puma, Iberdrola, Storebrand, Volvo, Volkswagen

European Market Summary Draghi is due to update German lawmakers in Berlin on the ongoing eurozone issues Greece stays high on the agenda as the coalition fails to get full backing on planned austerity measures as two junior parties in the coalition opposed the planned labour reforms The French government is reportedly close to finalising a deal to support Peugeot by providing up to €7bn of guarantees Brussels has now scrapped plans to introduce a law that would have forced all publicly traded companies to have at least 40% women on their boards SAP announces Q3 software revenues of €1.03bn ahead of estimates of €980m seen Germany is due to sell €4bn in 10 year bonds this morning

Major US Stock Movers After Hours Netflix fell over 19% after hours as it announced that it was cutting its full year forecasts for domestic growth and saw larger losses from international expansions RF Micro Devices gained 12% as it announced a Q3 EPS of 3c well ahead of the forecasts Facebook also gained over 10% after hours as it manages to shake off some of the post IPO gloom by reporting better than expected numbers, buoyed by mobile revenues Zynga detailed that it is to cut 5% of its workforce and close down support on 13 of its older game titles and gained 3% after hours

US Market News The quite rapid sell-off yesterday is being labelled as some profit taking following the start of the US corporate reporting season, which so far has under-whelmed, on some wider market nervousness ahead of the Fed rate decision due this evening Apple launched its Mini iPad yesterday with analysts concerned that the pricing leaves it vulnerable to the rival offerings Ex Goldman director Gupta is due to hear his sentence on the insider trading case today Bloomberg’s Chart of the Day highlights how personal sales of 3D printers have grown 35,000% since 2007, as the hi tech gear now costs less than $5,000

Overnight Market News LG Electronics the second largest mobile phone maker in South Korea announces a return to profit in Q3, buoyed by higher local demand The founder of Billabong has survived a move to drop him from the board after he rejected a takeover bid from TPG Capital at $4/share, Billabong traded in Sydney at 84.5 cents overnight Huawei has offered Australian authorities access to its code and equipment and states that concerns over possible security threats were distorted

Major Global IPOs Due Today Blackrock North American, 100m Shares, GBP £1.00 Wolfpack Gold Corp, 16.67m CAD0.6

FX Summary The Bank of China suggests that the surging dollar in Singapore could prevent the state from becoming an alternative to Hong Kong for yuan deposits The Hong Kong Monetary Authority sold its own currency for the second time this week as it looks to halt the appreciation to the upper limit of its 29 year peg to the US dollar

Commodity Summary Gold stayed strong yesterday amid the wider market nervousness and on renewed safe haven buying ahead of the Fed rate announcement this evening

Economic Data Due 09:00 Germany October IFO Business Climate, 101.6 exp. 101.4 prev. 15:00 US September New Home Sales, 385k exp. 373k previous 19:15 US FOMC Rate Decision, 0.25% unchanged expected