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US benchmarks little changed as Microsoft steals Apple's thunder

Published: 15:43 10 Sep 2014 BST

minecraft

US markets have opened little changed with next week’s policy committee meeting of the Federal Reserve already looming large.

The Fed has indicated that a rate rise is on the cards, but the question remains: when?

On the corporate front, Microsoft has stolen Apple’s thunder as rumours swirl that the Windows operating system firm is close to clinching a US$2bn deal to acquire the company behind gaming sensation Minecraft.

As for Apple, its product releases yesterday were so heavily leaked in a campaign that follows the company’s well-thumbed user manual for drip-feeding a compliant media that the response to the launch of new iPhone models and an Apple watch has been met with a largely uninterested “meh” by the stock market.

Doughnut vendor Krispy Kreme has seen its share price slim down considerably this morning as its second quarter underlying earnings per share came in three cents short of market expectations of 16 cents.

Retail chain Urban Outfitters is also on the slide, after the company revealed like-for-like sales have fallen back since the beginning of August.

The Dow Jones is off 13 points at 17,001, the S&P 500 is down 1 at 1,987 but the NASDAQ Composite has edged up a point to 4,553.

UK shares are also seeking direction today, with Footsie slightly in the red, largely because of the usual slew of ex-div stocks that you get on a Wednesday.

B&Q owner Kingfisher (LON:KGF) and home builder Barratt Developments (LON:BDEV) are doing their bit to shore up the blue-chip index, which is down 11 at 6,818.

Spurred by the news of management succession plans, Kingfisher shares advance 7.8% to trade at 319p per share.

Current chief executive Sir Ian Chesire is being replaced by Véronique Laury, who has been with the company for 11 years and is currently CEO of Kingfisher’s French unit Castorama.

If anybody still needed reminding of the reinvigorated interest in UK housing Barratt Developments provided it, announcing a doubling of profits and promised to increase returns to shareholders.

The builder said the housing market had returned to normal after a spike in interest following the launch of the government’s ‘help to buy’ scheme - which helps fund first-time buyers onto the property ladder.

Barratt increased its dividend to 10.3p for the full year, versus just 2.5p last year, and said it intends to make £400mln of ‘special’ cash pay-outs to shareholder over the coming three years. Little wonder the shares are up 2.3%.

In contrast, the trading statement from London Stock Exchange (LON:LSE) has prompted a 0.9% fall. Since the last update on trading on 22 August 2014, trends are broadly unchanged, the company revealed.

Across the broader market, MBL Group (LON:MUBL) is the best performer, shooting up more than a third, despite management of the home entertainment products distributor issuing a statement saying it has no idea why the shares are up so much.

A major milestone has been reached by Ncondezi Energy (LON:NCCL), as it struck a commercial deal with Electricidade de Mozambique (EdM) over the sale of power from the country's first ever fully dedicated thermal coal power station.
Investors welcomed the news and the shares are up 14% to 7.125p.

Sula Iron & Gold (LON:SULA) shares climb almost 10% after it restarted exploration work on its Ferensola project in Sierra Leone. This will assess the potential of the BIF 2 Target, which is a 20 square kilometre area north-east of the main deposit prospective for iron ore.

Premier African Minerals (LON:PREM) is finalising the plant design and flow sheets for its RHA tungsten mine in Zimbabwe after new metallurgical test work proved successful.

Cumulative Wolframite (tungsten) concentrate grades ranged between 62.3% and 63.5% WO3 and recoveries between 82.9% and 77.3%, Premier said.

The shares are up 5.8% on the news.

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