This Morning in London headline shares opened lower, reflecting weaker showings overnight in New York and Asia. At 9:00 the FTSE-100 was down 4.1 points at 6,531.1 with the FTSE-250 off 49.9 points at 11,310.3.
BROKER RECOMMENDATIONS
Altium Securities reiterates buy Carluccio's (CARL) with a 275p target, has a buy and 135p target for Dawson Holdings (DWN) and a buy and 315p target for Redhall Group (RHL).
Bear Stearns remains positive on Unilever (ULVR) after a meeting with the chief finance officer.
Citigroup reiterates hold C&C Group (CCR) with a €6 target, has a buy for De La Rue (DLAR), a buy and £11.50 target for Keller Group (KLR) and a buy and 500p target for Tesco (TSCO).
Deutsche Bank reiterates buy Diageo (DGE) with an £11.50 target.
Evolution Securities reinitiates coverage of DCD Media (DCD) with a buy and 120p target, reiterates buy Cookson (CKSN), raising target to 910p from 800p, has a buy and 630p target for Man Group (EMG) and a buy and 31.7p target for Kalahari Minerals (KAH).
Goldman Sachs downgrades Greencore (GNC) to sell from neutral, reducing target to €4.21 from €5.15, downgrades Meggitt (MGGT) to neutral from buy, cutting target to 335p from 365p, reiterates buy Arriva (ARI), raising target to 920p from 890p, raising estimates, has a buy for Go-Ahead Group (GOG), cutting target to £27.80 from £29, reducing estimates and has a buy and £12.78 target for Dana Petroleum (DNX), while removing the stock from its Conviction Buy List.
KBC Peel Hunt reiterates sell Carluccio's (CARL), raising estimates, has a buy for Lookers (LOOK), raising estimates, a reduce for Paragon (PAG) and a buy for Phoenix IT (PNX), cutting estimates.
Landsbanki reiterates buy Inspicio (INP), has a buy for Asos (ASC), a buy for Cookson (CKSN), a hold on Foseco (FOSE), a buy for Imprint (IMP), a buy and 350 fair value for SThree (STHR) and a buy for International Ferro Metals (IFL).
Merrill Lynch reiterates buy Tesco (TSCO), raising target to 485p from 470p and reiterates buys for Barratt Developments (BDEV), Bellway (BWY), Persimmon (PSN), Redrow (RDW) and Taylor Wimpey (TW.).
JP Morgan downgrades its rating for Royal & Sun Alliance (RSA) to neutral from overweight, with an unchanged 165p target price.
The broker has a neutral stance on Smith & Nephew (SN.), raising target to 655p from 615p.
Morgan Stanley upgrades Victrex (VCT) to equal-weight from underweight with a 650p target, reiterates overweight Tesco (TSCO) with a 480p target and has an equal-weight and 505p target for Trinity Mirror (TNI).
Numis has upgraded Asos (ASC) to add from hold with a 140p target, Carluccio's (CARL) to add from hold 221p, Lookers (LOOK) to buy from add 240p and Phoenix IT (PNX) to buy from add 520p.
Seymour Pierce reiterates buy Asos (ASC), has a buy for China Shoto (CHNS), a hold for Desire Petroleum (DES) and a hold and 185p target for Premier Farnell (PFL).
UBS has a buy and 620p target for British Airways (BAY) and a buy and 525p target for Tesco (TSCO).
NEWS ROUND-UP
Last Night in New York stocks fell amid losses in technology, including chip maker and Dow component Intel, with many investors opting to remain sidelined ahead of Friday's jobs report, viewed as crucial in whether the Federal Reserve cuts interest rates again at the end of the month. The Dow Jones shed 79.3 points to finish at 13,968, with 19 of its 30 components finishing in the red, led by the likes of Alcoa, off 3.1%, and Intel, which ended off 2.3% in the wake of its underweight rating from Morgan Stanley. The S&P fell 7.04 points to 1,539.59, while the Nasdaq slid 17.68 points to 2,729.43.
On this day in:-
1983 - Great British speed enthusiast Richard Noble set a new land speed record of 633.468-miles an hour in his jet-powered car, Thrust II, in Nevada. The speed was almost 600-mph faster than the very first record attempt in 1898.
1965 - Pope Paul VI became the first Pope to visit the United States of America, when he addressed the United Nations in New York.
1962 - An emerging pop group, 'The Beatles' released their first hit record 'Love Me Do'.
1958 - BOAC, now British Airways, started the first transatlantic commercial passenger jet service between Great Britain and America.
1957 - The launch of the Soviet space satelite -'Sputnik 1.' The Soviet Union fired the starting pistol of the space race with its launch of Sputnik, the world's first artificial Earth satellite. Soviet radio reported that the ‘artificial moon’, which weighed 184-pounds, was circling Earth once every hour and 36-minutes. From its elliptical orbit hundreds of miles above Earth, Sputnik transmitted signals back to the ground strong enough to be picked up by amateur radio operators. Many Americans feared the Soviet’s new technology, which seemed to be strides ahead of U.S. efforts. Sputnik was 52 times the size of the first planned U.S. satellite, which was not even scheduled to be launched until the following year.
1944 - During World War II, Allied forces landed in Greece.
1911 - Great Britain's first escalators were introduced-connecting the District Line and Piccadilly Line platforms at Earl's Court underground station in London.
1910 - Portugal declared itself to be a Republic.
1883 - The Boys Brigade was founded in Glasgow.
1878 - The opening of the first Chinese Embassy to be in Washington DC in the United States of America.
1830 - The official declaration of independence for Belgium.
