The FTSE 100 will look to cement last week’s gains and advance further after hitting 18 months highs last week on positive news from the US and Europe. In the US, the non-farm payrolls update that came out on Friday showed a decline of just 36,000 in employment, while a loss of as many as 70,000 jobs was projected by most surveys. In Europe, Greece moved closer to resolving its debt problem by introducing a fresh package of economic austerity measures that included tax hikes and pay cuts and conducting a successful bond issue that raised the debt laden country the targeted €5 billion to meet its near term refinancing commitments.
The rally was strong enough to shake off worse than expected results from banking major HSBC (LSE: HSBA) and an increase in US crude stockpiles that was reported by both API (American Petroleum Institute) and EIA (Energy Information Administration), signalling lower levels of crude demand.
Next week will see another flurry of corporate reports and major economic data that will include US retail sales update and EU unemployment figures.
On Monday, oil and gas engineering firm Petrofac (LSE: PFC), housebuilder Bovis Homes (LSE: BVS), inter-dealer broker Tullet Prebon (LSE: TLPR) and quality and safety services provider Intertek Group (LSE: ITRK) will release their final results.
Chilean copper miner Antofagasta (LSE: ANTO), satellite telecommunications group Inmarsat (LSE: ISAT), commercial property company Liberty International (LSE: LII), engineering firm Weir Group (LSE: WEIR) and power generation company International Power (LSE: IPR) will report on Tuesday.
Insurer Standard Life (LSE: SL), oil and gas producer Tullow Oil (LSE: TLW) and engineering services company Interserve (LSE: IRV) will release their final reports on Wednesday.
Supermarket chain Morrison (LSE: MRW), insurer Old Mutual (LSE: OML) and computer services provider Computacenter (LSE: CCC) will report on Thursday and commodity asset development company Mercator Gold (AIM: MCR) will release its final results on Friday.
The economic data that is due this week includes German retail sales numbers and EU unemployment rate on Monday, UK trade balance on Tuesday, EU industrial production and US wholesale inventories on Wednesday, US trade balance and Japan’s GDP data on Thursday and key US retail sales update due on Friday.
The FTSE 100 is currently projected to gain nearly 0.2% in early trade on Monday to add to last week's gain of 4.6%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average in the US is set to shed 0.1% after rallying 1.2% on Friday. The broader S&P 500 index surged 1.4%, while the techomlogy heavy NASDAQ composite added 1.5% on last week's final day of trading.