Analytics, News, and Forecasts for CFD Markets: stock news — 04-02-2013.

European stocks tumbled the most in more than three months as Spanish and Italian banks retreated with the nations’ government bonds amid signs of returning political uncertainty in the region’s weakest economies.

Newspaper El Pais last week published allegations of illegal cash payments, featuring extracts from handwritten ledgers by the former People’s Party Treasurer Luis Barcenas showing payments to officials including Rajoy. The premier, who is facing opposition calls to resign, visits Berlin today before a European Union summit begins on Thursday.

The yield on 10-year Italian debt increased 14 basis points to 4.47 percent. Berlusconi yesterday promised to abolish a property tax valued at about 4 billion euros ($5.4 billion) if elected in the Feb. 24-25 ballot, in an effort to roll back austerity implemented by Prime Minister Mario Monti.

National benchmark indexes declined in all of the 18 western European markets, except Greece and Denmark. Italy’s FTSE MIB Index sank 4.5 percent, the most in six months. Spain’s IBEX 35 slid 3.8 percent for a sixth day of declines, the longest losing streak in 10 months. France’s CAC 40 plunged 3 percent for the biggest drop since April. The U.K.’s FTSE 100 dropped 1.6 percent and Germany’s DAX lost 2.5 percent.

Santander plunged 5.7 percent to 5.69 euros in Madrid while Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA fell 4.7 percent to 6.97 euros. Yields on Spanish 10-year securities climbed 23 basis points to 5.44 percent today as Rajoy denied corruption and strategists from Commerzbank AG recommended reducing holdings of the nation’s debt.

In Italy, UniCredit tumbled 8.3 percent to 4.25 euros as UBS AG downgraded the shares to neutral from buy. Intesa Sanpaolo SpA, the nation’s second-biggest bank, retreated 5.4 percent to 1.38 euros.

Royal Imtech NV plunged 48 percent to 10.20 euros, the largest drop since at least 1989. The Dutch provider of infrastructure for stadiums said it may have to book writedowns of at least 100 million euros because of alleged irregularities at its Polish business.

Swatch Group AG added 5 percent to 543.50 francs, its highest price since at least 1993, after the biggest maker of Swiss watches reported a 26 percent increase in 2012 net income to 1.6 billion francs. That beat the average analyst estimate of 1.49 billion francs in a survey as the company produced more watches and took advantage of expanded production capacity at its factories.

US Stock Futures fell on brokerage downgrades of Wal-Mart (WMT), Chevron Corp. (CVX) and Merck (MRK), combined with a resurgence of eurozone worries linked to political uncertainty in Spain and Italy.

Global Stocks:

Upgrades:
Stifel Nicolaus upgrades Yahoo (YHOO) to Buy from Hold and sets target price at $25.

Downgrades:
Merck (MRK) downgraded to Mkt Perform from Outperform at Leerink Swann  
Merck (MRK) downgraded to Underweight from Equal-Weight at Morgan Stanley
JPMorgan downgrades Wal-Mart (WMT) to Neutral from Overweight and lowers its price target on shares to $75
Chevron (CVX) downgraded from Buy to Neutral at UBS

Other:
Wunderlich raises their Walt Disney (DIS) target to $58 from $50
Oppenheimer raises their Cisco (CSCO) target to $24 from $22

Indices for European stock markets show a decrease. Positive statistics on the industry in China and reporting Swatch Group AG, the results of which exceeded analysts' estimates, did not significantly affect the market.

Do not add to the positive news released today by the indicator of investor confidence Sentix euro zone, which was -3.9 in February at the forecast of -2.2 and an index of business activity in the construction sector in the UK, the value of which 48.7 in January on a monthly basis, the forecast 49.7.

To date:

FTSE 100 6,326.53 -20.71 -0.33%

DAX 7,823.94 -9.45 -0.12%

CAC 3,765.09 -8.44 -0.22%

Swatch Group AG shares rose 2.2% after a positive corporate reporting.

Market quotes BG Group rose by 0,1%, Total SA - 0.6%.

Royal Imtech NV capitalization declined by 41% due to the fact that a company which is known for its cutting-edge developments in the field of new technologies postponed publication of reports over the past year and expects a loss of 100 million euros in connection with alleged irregularities in business projects in Poland.

Asia’s benchmark stock index rose to the highest level in 18 months as U.S. payrolls expanded and China services industries grew at the fastest pace since August, adding to optimism in the global economic recovery.

Nikkei 225 11,260.35 +69.01 +0.62%

S&P/ASX 200 4,907.52 -13.58 -0.28%

Shanghai Composite 2,428.15 +9.13 +0.38%

Rio Tinto Group, the world’s second-largest mining company, advanced 1.2 percent in Sydney, leading gains among companies with earnings closely tied to economic growth.

Sony Corp., trying to reverse a two-year decline in PlayStation sales, surged 7.5 percent in Tokyo amid speculation the firm is prepping a new version of the home console.

Panasonic Corp., Japan’s second-largest TV maker, soared 17 percent after reporting an unexpected third-quarter profit.

Asian stocks fell, with the regional benchmark index retreating a second day from the highest since August 2011, after mixed reports on Chinese manufacturing. Japanese shares advanced on earnings and a weaker yen.

Nikkei 225 11,191.34 +52.68 +0.47%

Hang Seng 23,721.84 -7.69 -0.03%

S&P/ASX 200 4,921.1 +42.31 +0.87%

Shanghai Composite 2,419.02 +33.60 +1.41%

China Overseas Land & Investment Ltd., the biggest mainland developer listed in Hong Kong, slumped 2.3 percent after home prices in China posted their biggest gain in two years, sparking concern that the government will introduce additional property curbs.

NEC Corp. surged 8.5 percent after the maker of telecommunications equipment returned to profit in the third quarter from a loss a year earlier.

Toyota Motor Corp., which last year regained its position as the top-selling carmaker, rose 3 percent in Tokyo after the yen weakened.

European stocks posted their biggest weekly decline this year as a report showed the U.S. economy unexpectedly shrank in the fourth quarter and Spain’s markets regulator lifted a ban on shorting equities.

The benchmark Stoxx 600 fell 0.5 percent to 288.2 this week, its biggest drop since the end of 2012.

Spanish banks slumped, with Banco de Sabadell SA plunging 14 percent and Bankia tumbling 25 percent, as the country’s stock-market regulator, known as CNMV, said on Jan. 31 that it wouldn’t extend a ban on shorting stocks.

Santander lost 7.7 percent after the country’s largest lender set aside money for further loan losses in its home market. The bank reported fourth-quarter profit of 401 million euros ($549 million), missing the average analyst estimate of 801.6 million euros.

National benchmark indexes retreated in 12 of western Europe’s 18 markets this week.

FTSE 100 6,347.24 +70.36 +1.12% CAC 40 3,773.53 +40.93 +1.10% DAX 7,833.39 +57.34 +0.74%

Saipem (SPM) plunged 36 percent. Europe’s largest oil-services company by sales lowered its forecast for earnings before interest and taxes in 2012 to about 1.5 billion euros. Ebit will fall to about 750 million euros in 2013, the company said. It predicted that earnings from onshore projects would slump by about 80 percent this year.

Imagination Technologies rallied 18 percent. Morgan Stanley upgraded the British maker of chip technology for phones and tablet computers to overweight, the equivalent of buy, from equal weight.

Swedbank AB (SWEDA) jumped 12 percent as the second-best capitalized major lender in the European Union proposed a dividend of 9.90 kronor a share, compared with 5.30 kronor a year earlier. The lender posted net income of 4.34 billion kronor ($690 million) in the fourth quarter, beating the 3.54 billion-krona average analyst estimate.

Major U.S. stock indexes rose significantly today, completing trades near maximum. For the week DOW index rose 0,8%, Nasdaq rose 0,91%, S & P500 gained 0.56%.

Major U.S. stock indexes the second month of 2013 begins to increase. The closing of the major indexes rise more than 1%, this index showed a maximum DOW above $ 14,000 for the first time since October 2007.

Growth is the reason for today's published data on the U.S. labor market, the index of business activity in industry and consumer sentiment, as well as construction costs.

On the labor market data we have mentioned now and again. Again, they got it for what the market needed: not too optimistic that the continued prevalence of chances to continue stimulating the U.S. economy by the Federal Reserve, and not too weak, confirming the current trend of moderate recovery.

Other reports showed improvement in consumer sentiment from Reuters / Michigan, the manufacturing index of the Institute for Supply Management, as well as a stronger than expected increase in construction cost.

Against the publication of important macroeconomic data published quarterly reports a significant impact on the dynamics of today's trades do not have.

Among the components of the index DOW only shares Merck & Co. Inc. (MRK, -3.33%), Hewlett-Packard Company (HPQ, -0,30%) suffer losses. At the moment, the leader shares in Bank of America Corporation (BAC, +3.27%).

All sectors of the S & P is in the green zone. The leader is the sector conglomerates (1.2%).

At the close:

Dow +149.21 14,009.79 +1.08%

Nasdaq +36.97 3,179.10 +1.18%