Day Ahead

FTSE 100 Opening Call The FTSE is seen opening down around 10 points lower today

UK Corporate Announcements National Express states that the quarter met its expectations and states it is to focus on driving up returns on capital and maintains its full year forecasts EasyJet details 12 month passengers to April gained to 59.9m from 56.2m with a load factor of 86.7% from 89.3% Telecity announces that the full year outlook remains on track G4S announces Q1 revenues gained 7.5% at constant FX with overall organic growth up 6% and states that the macro-economic environment had affected developed market margins

UK Market News After the strong showing by UKIP in the recent local elections Nigel Lawson the former UK chancellor has stated that the UK economy would be better off outside the EU, due to it becoming a bureaucratic monstrosity The Bank of England is due to announce its decision on interest rates this week, and also detail if it is to keep its stimulus program ongoing at the same scale Diageo will be eyed after reports that its CEO is to step down end June, and this has just been confirmed by Diageo this morning Sainsbury announces that it is in advanced talks to buy out Lloyds and take full ownership of their joint venture banking operation

UK Analyst Changes Admiral Group Cut To Underweight Vs Neutral At Jpmorgan Bt Pt Raised To 300P Vs 250P At Citi, Stays Neutral Imagination Technologies Cut To Neutral Vs Outperform At Exane Kingfisher PT Raised to 410p vs 320p at Credit Suisse Mondi PT Raised to 1,040p vs 980p at Credit Suisse Rbs Cut To Neutral Vs Overweight At Jpmorgan Rbs Pt Cut 3% To 320P At Exane; Kept At Neutral

UK Insider Buying Cls Holdings Plc, (CLI), 1 insider(s) bought 1500 shares, £9.18 Fidessa Group Plc, (FDSA), 1 insider(s) bought 2750 shares, £18.12 Highcroft Investments, (HCFT), 1 insider(s) bought 2500 shares, £6.35 Mediterranean Oil & Gas, (MOG), 1 insider(s) bought 160000 shares, £0.1 Tyman Plc, (TYMN), 1 insider(s) bought 100000 shares, £2.08 Ultra Electronics Hldg, (ULE), 1 insider(s) bought 500 shares, £16.79

UK Insider Selling None Detailed

FTSE 100 Movers

Major European Companies Reporting Adecco SA, Q1, 0.52,  Alstom SA, R, 3.044,  Axel Springer AG, Q1, 0.5,  Banco Espirito Santo SA, Q1, 0.01,  Carlsberg A/S, Q1, 0.367,  Commerzbank AG, Q1, 0.04,  Credit Agricole SA, Q1, 0.235,  Distribuidora Internacional de Alimentacion SA, Q1, 0.031,  Dufry AG, Q1, 0.125,  Endesa SA, Q1, 0,  Enel SpA, Q1, 0,  Gas Natural SDG SA, Q1, 0.41,  Gjensidige Forsikring ASA, Q1, 1.48,  Hannover Rueckversicherung SE, Q1, 1.72,  HSBC Holdings PLC, Q1, 0.33,  Lundin Petroleum AB, Q1, 0.164,  Meda AB, Q1, 0.879,  Muenchener Rueckversicherungs AG, Q1, 5.246,  Pirelli & C. SpA, Q1, 0,  ProSiebenSat.1 Media AG, Q1, 0.233,  Securitas AB, Q1, 1.205,  Skanska AB, Q1, 1.028,  Societe Generale SA, Q1, 0.752,  Stada Arzneimittel AG, Q1, 0.668,  Symrise AG, Q1, 0.412,  Telekom Austria AG, Q1, 0.08

European Market Summary The WSJ suggests that the EU is preparing for solar tariffs as it increases the push back on cheap Chinese imports Draghi has stated that policy makers are prepared to cut rates again if they are needed Telefonica has reportedly revived a plan to sell its Madrid headquarters, five years after it failed to find a buyer for the unit The IMF has warned that Greece’s debt remains much too high

Global Intraday Footprint

Major US Stock Movers After Hours Broadsoft gained 8% after hours as it announced strong Q1 EPS numbers, and with revenues well ahead of the forecasts

S&P 500 Companies Reporting Birmingham City Plc, BMC, (R), Ca Inc, CA, (R), C.H. Robinson Worldwide Inc, CHRW, (R), Davita Healthcare Partners I, DVA, (R), Directv, DTV, (R), Discovery Communications-A, DISCA, (R), Electronic Arts Inc, EA, (R), Empresaria Group Plc, EMR, (R), Firstenergy Corp, FE, (R), Fossil Inc, FOSL, (R), Health Care Reit Inc, HCN, (R), Intl Flavors & Fragrances, IFF, (R), Melrose Industries Plc, MRO, (R), Mckesson Corp, MCK, (R), Advantage Property Income Tr, TAP, (R), Mondelez International Inc-A, MDLZ, (R), Northern Recruitment Grp Plc, NRG, (R), Perrigo Co, PRGO, (R), Symantec Corp, SYMC, (R), Triple Point Vct Plc, TRIP, (R), Walt Disney Co/The, DIS, (R), Whole Foods Market Inc, WFM, (R), Wm-Data Ab-B Shs, WMB, (R)

US Market News The US Senate has passed an online sales tax measure for US States Electronic Arts announces that it has been given the contract to create the Star Wars games for the new films to be made The summer blockbuster season starts with IMXA detailing that Iron Man 3 grossed $28.2m in its opening weekend As Facebook continues to look at ways to add revenues to its sites it confirms that it will start to offer video ads on its newsfeeds from July While Google’s YouTube is reportedly looking at launching subscription channels this summer Microsoft is in the news on reports that it is looking to make a huge corporate U-turn on Windows 8, the FT writes this could be ‘one of the most prominent admissions of failures since Coca-Cola’s New Coke fiasco 30 years ago’ US regulators have taken a closer eye on Bitcoin after the online currency hit the headlines in recent weeks, with officials stating that they were ‘seriously’ considering issue

Overnight Market News The Pentagon has now openly accused the Chinese government of targeting US government computers seeking sensitive data New Zealand started its largest IPO for a couple of years as the government sells 49% of Mighty River Power Ltd looking to raise around NZ$1.6bn, around $1.4bn, the two day auction to institutions to set the final price starts today Baidu announces it is paying $370m for PPS Net TV;’s internet video business, as it looks to become the largest online video site to match its dominant position in search

Top FX The Aussie Dollar has fallen to an 8 week low after the RBA meeting where the interest rate is cut to a record low of 2.75%, only 8 out of 29 economists saw the move While the yen has gained, as traders end the three day of losses which brought the currency to within 0.6% of 100 per dollar

Top Commodity Coutts the private banking arm of RBS has scaled back its holdings in gold and states that a return to that level is unlikely unless there was a weaker dollar or a jump in inflation

Economic Data Due 00:01 UK April BRC Shop Price Index, 1.4% previous 11:00 German March Factory Orders, -0.5% exp. 2.3% previous

Economic Events Van Rompuy speaks in Helsinki

German Manufacturing Orders

Footnotes FTSE 100 Call as at 6:45am Analyst Changes, as at 6:30am Times given are UK Local Time, (GMT or GMT +1 during BST) Insider Deals data compiled from Director/PDMR Shareholding forms published in the past 24 hours (ex weekends). Major European Companies defined as those companies in the STOXX Europe 600 Index FTSE 100 Movers, Blue >0.25%, Green <0.25% > -0.25%, Red < -0.25%, Font size dependent on percentage size of move This note is compiled using information / charts from financial data providers such as Bloomberg and Reuters, as well as from the general financial / business media