>>> US Gapping down

Gapping down
In reaction to disappointing earnings/guidance: KLAC -5.6%, KMB -5.4%, AMID -4.2%, (announces prelim 2014 financial results in-line with guidance; expects 2014 ADJ EBITDA to be at the low end of Partnership's guidance range of $46-48 million ), ALTR -4.1%, MSCC -3.4%, EGHT -3.4%, ISRG -2.4%, KSU -1.9%, EDR -0.8%, SWKS -0.7%

M&A news: OIBR -4.8% (Oi SA disclosed that shareholders approved the sale by Oi of all of the shares of PT Portugal SGPS S.A. to Altice Portugal S.A.)

Select Brazil related names showing weakness: ITUB -2.8%, CIG -2.8%, GGB -2.5%, GOL -2.1%

Select metals/mining stocks trading lower: MT -5.4%, GFI -2.7%, RIO -2.6%, RIO -2.6%, BHP -2.2%, AU -1.9%, HMY -1.6%, FCX -1.3%, GOLD -0.8%

Select oil/gas related names showing early weakness:RDS.A -1.9%, BP -1.4%, TOT -1%

Other news: CACH -28.1% (weakness attributed to reports of potential bankruptcy filing in the near-term), MCP -20.5% (follow on weakness to potential debt restructuring advice), DWA -13.9% ( to implement a new strategic plan to restructure its core feature animation business ), FXCM -9.4% (cont vol pre-mkt), CPSS -5.8% (disclosed it received a civil investigative subpoena from the Department of Justice), CNET -4.9% (still checking), MACK -4% (disclosed resignation of Chief Scientific Officer Ulrik B. Nielsen), PLAY -3.8% (filed for 6 mln share common stock offering by selling shareholders), OTIC -2.9% (prices 2,550,000 shares of its common stock at a price to the public of $29.25 per share), DRL -2.4% (disclosed that on January 21, 2015 the Board and David E. Hooston agreed that effective January 22, 2015 Mr. Hooston would resume his responsibilities as CFO), CLF -2.2% (in sympathy with peers X and VALE trading lowered after dg at GS)

Analyst comments: VALE -4.9% (downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Goldman), X -1.6% (downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Goldman), JBHT -1% (downgraded to Hold from Buy at Deutsche Bank), XOM -0.6% (downgraded to Underperform from Neutral at Credit Suisse), CVX -0.5% (downgraded to Neutral from Outperform at Credit Suisse)

WSJ : SAP Avoids European Headwinds

SAP Avoids European Headwinds
Europe Is the Fastest-growing Region for the Software Giant, Says Company CEO

DAVOS, Switzerland—The one common denominator among chief executives at the World Economic Forum in Davos has been that their businesses are experiencing headwinds in Europe. But software giant SAP SE says it has managed to buck the trend.

“Europe is our fastest-growing region,” said Bill McDermott, SAP’s chief executive, during an interview in Davos during the World Economic Forum. In 2014, for instance, SAP’s cloud computing business grew more than 55% in Europe.

The Walldorf, Germany-based company has been on an acquisition spree over the last few years, as it shifts its focus from on-premise license software to Internet cloud-based offerings. But Mr. McDermott said that M&A will be less of a focus going forward, now that he has filled out the business. In September, SAP bought expense-management cloud software company Concur Technologies Inc. for $8.3 billion, its largest acquisition ever.

Since 2010, SAP has done $25 billion in acquisitions, Mr. McDermott said. Any subsequent acquisitions are likely to be so-called “tuck-in” acquisitions that are small in size, he said. SAP has a market capitalization of $78 billion.

As for the trend in tech as of late to split into two, Mr. McDermott isn’t entertaining the option even though the cloud business is growing at a much higher rate than the rest of SAP’s business. In October, Hewlett-Packard Co. , which helped invent the computer business, said it would separate its PC and printer business from its corporate hardware and services business. Antivirus maker Symantec Corp. and eBay Inc. are also engineering splits.

“The customer wants us to offer all of these products,” Mr. McDermott said.

Still, Mr. McDermott has acknowledged in the past that the transition to the cloud will squeeze profit margins over the midterm. On Tuesday, SAP dropped a previously deferred operating profit margin target of 35% for 2017, while reporting a slight decline in net profit for the fourth quarter.

>>> Monitise confirms it has received merger and sale interest

Monitise confirms it has received merger and sale interest
Monitise plc (LSE: MONI.L) ("Monitise", the "Company" or "Group") notes the media speculation in connection with the initiation of its Strategic Review on 22 January 2015 and confirms that it has received a number of expressions of interest in a range of potential corporate transactions including a merger with a third party or a sale of the Company.

Discussions are at a highly preliminary stage and there can be no certainty that any transaction will result.

As stated on 22 January 2015, the Strategic Review will be all encompassing and include consideration of a range of corporate transactions and stock market listing options.

Monitise remains well funded and debt free with GBP 129m of gross cash, as at 31 December 2014. The Board believes that the Company has a unique set of global partners and customers, and reiterates its expectation to be EBITDA profitable in FY 2016 (the "FY 2016 Profit Forecast"). The Board also reiterates guidance of 200 million users and GBP 2.50 ARPU by end FY 2018, based on the scale of the market opportunity and partnerships in place.

Background:

Reports in the second half of last year referred to speculation that a resourcing agreement with IBM could lead to a takeover bid for the UK company by the US giant.

>>> Gartner announces semiconductor consumption data; Apple, Samsung and HP take

Gartner announces semiconductor consumption data; Apple, Samsung and HP take top spots

According to Gartner (IT), total semiconductor consumption in 2014 was ~$57.9 bln, an increase of over 7% from 2013, in which consumption was ~$54 bln.
  • Samsung (SSNLF) remained top consumer, despite lower than global growth, due to smartphone market struggles and PC market withdrawal.
  • Apple (AAPL) and HP (HPQ) were the second and third largest consumers respectively.
  • Industry trends showed larger consumption of semi-conductors by top-10 companies.

Fwd:>>> Accor - Quick Chart - Testing Historical Highs - strong Resistance

Accor has broken few resistance, RSI look stretch here now I will lock some profit and wait a pull back to come back on the stock

From: LAURENT CHEKROUN (MAKOR SECURITIES LLP) At: Jan 21 2015 09:05:06
Subject: Fwd:>>> Accor - Quick Chart - Testing Historical Highs - strong Resistance
Accor trading higher on numbers, watch level mentionned below, price action today will be important for further development, stock need to close above resistance.

From: LAURENT CHEKROUN (MAKOR SECURITIES LLP) At: Jan 20 2015 09:18:54
Subject: Fwd:>>> Accor - Quick Chart - Testing Historical Highs - strong Resistance
Watch Accor again today, stock is testing levels, after closing below yesterday

From: LAURENT CHEKROUN (MAKOR SECURITIES LLP) At: Jan 19 2015 16:30:02
To: LAURENT CHEKROUN (MAKOR SECURITIES LLP)
Subject: Fwd:>>> Accor - Quick Chart - Testing Historical Highs - strong Resistance
Accor is testing important levels...next level to watch if we break 40.31 & 41.8/42.10, still room to trade higher whe you look the RSI...
Accor is reporting in a month (18/02), Starwwod on the 10th of Feb, Marriot on the 18th

on the 9th of Jan, Wansquare was talking of BAzin who invested a lot in Accor he bought 1.4mil of opetions witha €42 strike...
{NSN NHWN7RAIH8N4<Go>}

(MS) 11 Stocks to benefit from ECB QE (AC,BMW,CAP,DPW,RXL,RYA,SKF,TFI,TUI)

(Full note attached)
The euro has already fallen by more than the average decline seen in other currencies around QE announcements.

Euro-area bond yields have already seen a larger fall than that experienced around any other QE announcement.

Our strategists’ analysis suggests 8% upside for EMU equities over the next 6M. This is based on the average performance of domestic stocks seen around prior QE announcements.

Cyclical sectors have traditionally performed best around prior QE announcements, especially Autos, Industrials, Chemicals and Media. Utilities, Banks, Real Estate and Food & Bev have consistently been relative underperformers.

WSJ : Some of the Most Innovative Watches of 2015

Some of the Most Innovative Watches of 2015
A sneak peek at some of the new watches that will be on display at SIHH
7 of 7fullscreen
Inside the 47-millimeter case is a hand-wound in-house movement, the P.3000, with a three-day power reserve. PANERAI
By
MICHAEL CLERIZO
Updated Jan. 22, 2015 6:21 p.m. ET
55 COMMENTS
“WHICH SKI RESORT are you going to?” is a question often heard by watch writers after notifying friends of an impending trip to Switzerland in January. Ski resort! Will they ever learn? January in Switzerland means Geneva and the Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie, where 16 luxury brands strut their newest stuff. Here’s a look at some of the new watches on display this year. Skiing can wait until February.
ENLARGE
Panerai Firenze; Montblanc Orbis Terrarum; Piaget Black Tie PHOTO: PANERAI; MONTBLANC; PIAGET
PANERAI FIRENZE // Watches attempting to evoke a location often feature engravings or miniature paintings rendered in excruciating detail, straining to prove that size is no limitation. Panerai’s Firenze, named for the brand’s birthplace, takes a different approach: Less is more. Engraved on the sides of a traditional Panerai case are floral motifs and eight iterations of the giglio fiorentino, the symbol of Florence since the 11th century. On the front are four curved triangles reminiscent of pendentives (an architectural element found in many Florentine churches), each engraved with a floral motif. All the engravings have contrasting light and dark areas that add to their visual impact. Inside the 47-millimeter case is a hand-wound in-house movement, the P.3000, with a three-day power reserve. Only 99 will be produced.

    MONTBLANC ORBIS TERRARUM //Worldtimers, which simultaneously display 24 time zones, are another test of legibility—too much information in too small a space. With Orbis Terrarum, Montblanc untangles the jumble. (But then, you’d expect a pen brand to understand legibility.) At the center of the dial is the earth as viewed from the North Pole, with oceans in azure blue and continents outlined in pale blue. A disc, half dark blue, half white, rotates beneath as a day/night indicator. City names are on an inner ring, numerals on an outer ring.
    PIAGET BLACK TIE // Nostalgia, a wit once quipped, is a form of unrequited love. Maybe, but some slivers of the past bring comfort and pleasure. This year, Piaget presents an agreeable reminder of another era with Black Tie, a formal dress watch based on an early 1960s aesthetic, a time when the adjectives “elegant” and “simple” were natural partners. Black Tie lives up to its name with a cushion-shaped white-gold case with stepped sides and a recessed crown, a black onyx dial with slim white-gold hands and no numerals.
    ENLARGE
    Roger Dubuis Excalibur Automatic Skeleton; Ralph Lauren Automotive SkeletonPHOTO: ROGER DUBUIS; RALPH LAUREN
    RALPH LAUREN AUTOMOTIVE SKELETON // Skeletonized watches present a challenge: legibility. Telling the time means finding the hands in a jumble of gears, wheels and bridges. Ralph Lauren’s Automotive Skeleton solves this with color. The 44.8-millimeter stainless-steel case and much of the movement are a gleaming black, while the sword-shaped hands are a mellow beige. Retaining elements of the dial—including a dark-blue seconds subdial at 6—further reduces optical confusion. The color scheme also helps, with golden yellow for round brass components like the balance wheel visible at 9, and steel gray for parts of the winding mechanism at 3. Encompassing the movement like a frame around a painting is the reddish brown Amboyna burl wood bezel.
    ROGER DUBUIS EXCALIBUR AUTOMATIC SKELETON // Roger Dubuis offers another solution to the legibility of skeletonized watches: shape. Eschewing the traditional structure of Swiss watch engines for designs based on nature, its movements are arranged along the points of the stars or nestled in their center. The result: Visual confusion is banished. On Excalibur Automatic Skeleton, the designers have added a self-winding microrotor without clouding the view of the hour and minute hands.
    ENLARGE
    Vacheron Constantin Harmony Monopusher Pulsimeter Chronograph; IWC Schaffhausen Annual Calendar; Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Concept. PHOTO:VACHERON CONSTANTIN; IWC SCHAFFHAUSEN; AUDEMARS PIGUET
    VACHERON CONSTANTIN HARMONY MONOPUSHER PULSIMETER CHRONOGRAPH // To celebrate its 260th anniversary, Geneva-based Vacheron Constantin is launching the seven-watch Harmony collection, each with a new in-house movement and a pink-gold cushion-shaped case. Recalling the days when mechanical watches performed vital functions in everyday life, the Harmony Chronograph boasts a pulsimeter to calculate heartbeats per minute. But this raises questions: Who needs a pulsimeter these days? (Doctors maybe.) And why buy a mechanical watch? The justifications are all emotional. The Harmony Chronograph is a beautiful and rare object (only 260 will be made), with its own beating heart in the movement.
    IWC SCHAFFHAUSEN ANNUAL CALENDAR // Another surprise: Rather than dials and hands to display the day, date and month, the new IWC Portugieser Annual Calendar sports a month-date-day arch at 12 on a cool blue dial.
    AUDEMARS PIGUET ROYAL OAK CONCEPT //Audemars Piguet is one of the grand watchmaking brands—which makes its continual subverting of convention all the more surprising. Its latest Royal Oak Concept watch, a chronograph and minute repeater with a tourbillon and a 42-millimeter titanium case, looks like something that might have popped from the fervid imagination of Tim Burton during his “Batman” period, and not the Jura Valley, heartland of Swiss watchmaking. The watch is a prototype, but expect its innovations to appear in the brand’s watches in the near future. The rub? It’s not for sale.
    Parmigiani Bugatti Victoire; Richard Mille RM 19-02 Tourbillon Fleur; Cartier Rotond De Cartier. PHOTO: PARMIGIANI; RICHARD MILLE; CARTIER
    PARMIGIANI BUGATTI VICTOIRE // This year marks the 10th anniversary of the Bugatti-Parmigiani partnership. Watches produced by this alliance often garner uncomprehending stares, as they’re designed so that the dial is always visible when your hands are on the steering wheel. Legend has it that the idea occurred to a designer while he was watering his garden. He cut off a piece of his hose and tied it to his wrist to test his notion. And a great watch was born.
    RICHARD MILLE RM 19-02 TOURBILLON FLEUR // Before launching his eponymous brand, Richard Mille worked in the jewelry business, so he’s a man who understands diamonds. His new women’s RM 19-02 Tourbillon Fleur does employ the tactic of covering the case of a men’s watch, but Mr. Mille enlivens his creation by placing a flying tourbillon inside the five petals of an 18-karat gold purple magnolia. Beautiful.
    CARTIER ROTOND DE CARTIER // Surprisingly for a brand armed with many classic watch designs, outré creations are standard fare at Cartier. This year’s Rotond de Cartier Reversed Tourbillon induces a “What’s going on here?” The answer: Parts of the movement normally visible from the back are now visible from the front and placed almost entirely in the right half of the guilloche dial.
    A. LANGE & SÖHNE SAXONIA DUAL TIME // A. Lange & Söhne never strays far from its roots, with wristwatches that faithfully echo the designs of the German brand’s 19th-century pocket watches. Saxonia Dual Time, introduced in the 1990s, greets 2015 with a gentle face-lift. On a silver dial, the batons marking the hours are doubled at 3, 6, 9 and 12 and the minute markers are longer. The hour, minute and second hands are pink or white gold, matching the case, while the second time-zone hand and the hand on the 24-hour display are blued steel.
    JAEGER LE-COULTRE RENDEZ-VOUS MOON // Jaeger Le-Coultre’s new women’s watch combines a large moon phase with a display of constellations on a blue background—and 208 diamonds. The design gives prominence to the mother-of-pearl moon and supporting roles to the constellations and the hour numerals without sacrificing visual coherence.
    BAUME & MERCIER CLIFTON // Baume & Mercier appreciates simplicity. Adding complications to one of the brand’s core models, The Clifton, merely involves positioning a grand date window at 12 and an ultrasimple power reserve at 6. Perfect.

    >>> Lafarge/Holcim: Blackstone consortium lining up EUR 4.5bn debt to finance bi

    Lafarge/Holcim: Blackstone consortium lining up EUR 4.5bn debt to finance bid for assets 

    A consortium led by Blackstone Group is working on securing EUR 4.5bn of debt to finance a bid for assets to be divested by the cement groups Lafarge and Holcim, according to a newswire report. A Reuters report on Thursday afternoon, 22 January cited bankers who said the debt financing is equivalent to about 5.5 times earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization of around EUR 725m to EUR 730m.

    The private equity firm Cinven and Canada Pension Plan are the other members of the Blackstone consortium, the item said. The consortium has offered EUR 5.5bn for the assets, according to a source cited by the report.

    People familiar with the matter said the Irish building materials group CRH is bidding against the Blackstone consortium.

    Another source cited buy the report said a consortium of the buyout group CVC and the sovereign wealth funds GIC and Abu Dhabi Investment Authority was continuing to conduct due diligence ahead of a potential bid.

    One of the people familiar with the matter said Lafarge and Holcim have yet to choose a bidder to enter exclusive talks, but added that they may choose an exclusive bidder within days.

    CRH is considered the leading bidder, with an offer of EUR 6bn, according to one source cited by the report.

    Holcim, Lafarge, CRH, Cinven, CPP and CVC refused to comment, while GIC and Abu Dhabi Investment Authority could not be reached immediately for comment, the item said.

    >>> CGG - outlook negative, cut to B from B+ by S&P

    Comments on credit rating 

    - In the context of the S&P's downgrade of the company's rating and the associated comments, CGG would like to reiterates its anticipated end of the year 2014 financial situation.

    - Following a high level of cash generation during the fourth quarter 2014, Group net debt amounts at around $2.4B as of end of December 2014.

    - As that date, the financial leverage of the company - the Net Debt over EBITDA ratio - is anticipated to be close to 2,4x far below the 3,75x financial covenant cap and showing a very significant improvement when compared to the 2,9x level reached at the end of September 2014.

    - The Group Liquidity (sum of the cash balance and the undrawn portion of Revolving Credit Facility) at the end of 2014 is quite solid, standing above $650m, and looking forward CGG will benefit from a very large debt maturity umbrella with no significant debt repayment obligations within the next four years.