European shares rallied in today's session following the EU summit which deferred its final decisions for a later summit on Wednesday. As expected there were no final solutions, but the sense of urgency was greater this time. German Chancellor Merkel noted that she was certain there would be an agreement regarding EFSF leverage and bank recapitalization. The key difference however remains and involves the size of the haircut of Greek private bondholders. China's rising manufacturing data also helped sentiment.
There were reports in the press that European banks such as UBS, Deutsche Bank, Barclays and Credit Suisse may speed up asset disposals and restructuring and job cuts given a bleaker prospect for their earnings. UBS, which is expected to report tomorrow, may show a drop of 83% in the third quarter net income due to the loss of CHF2.3B from the rogue trade. Banks are trading in positive territory but off their session highs. TomTom [TOM2.NV] reported significantly better than expected earnings while also raising the forecast. Shares were up by almost 17%. Alterian [ALTN.UK] rallied approx. 26% during the session after disclosing that it had received an offer of 80p/shr from SDL representing a 40% premium over its closing price on October 20th. Alterian had rejected the offer.