Some uncertainty can be felt on these ”fringe markets”; big players are taking some risk off the table. Much better than expected employment numbers from the United States improved the sentiment in the afternoon as did a strong ISM number, but the improvement was very measured. More ugly details from the German dioxin scandal are surfasing. Portugal sold 500 million Euro worth of 6-month bills. The auction was oversubscribed handily but the yield jumped to nearly 3.7%. European Central Bank Governing Council member Yves Mersch writes in Wall Street Journal that Europe needs to start removing the stimulus measures sooner rather than later. Tomorrow Stockholm and Helsinki stock exchanges are closed for Epiphany.
Skanska landed nearly 1 billion Swedish kronor order to construct a tunnel for power transmission in London from construction company Costain. The end-customer is National Grid. Metso is going to supply a biomass power plant to Estonia. The order is made by Oü Helme Energia and it is worth more than 15 million Euro. FLSmidth received a 180 million DKK contract from Votorantim Cimentos, Ltda (Brazil) to supply six OK mills for cementgrinding. This continues on an established business relationship (earlier the customer ordered furnace for the project from FLSmidth).
Pulp & Paper sector was overperforming today. Kauppalehti wrote this morning that UPM is planning to build a pulp mill in Irkutsk, Russia. UPM’s Executive Vice President of Corporate Communications Pirkko Harrela later dismissed the rumour to the same magazine, saying that UPM is completely unaware of the project.
Scandinavian Properties A/S says it is continuing to negotiation with debtor banks after the company failed to meet interest payments due last month. The company also says it will not pay interest for loans due in early January. Westend ICT (former TJ Group) is now officially Innofactor plc as a result of the recent merger.
Algeta has completed enrollment of 900 people into phase 3 trial with Alpharadin for the treatment of castration-resistant prostate cancer patients with bone metastases. The company expects to report top-line data in 2012.
Reuters quoted U.K. environment secretary stating that European Union farm policy is ”morally wrong”. Then again, for much of its history the main activity of the entire clique has been to subsidize farmers and it still remains as the by far largest cost. The comments do come at an opportune time, bearing in mind that food prices are at an all time high.
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