It's a busy results season week for London-listed companies, including high street banks Barclays and NatWest, drug giants AstraZeneca and GSK, consumer goods conglomerates Unilever and Reckitt Benckiser, and US tech titans, including Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon and Meta Platforms.
There are also updates from the owners of Primark and Premier Inns, Sainsbury's, London Stock Exchange Group and commodities colossuses (colossi?) Glencore and Fresnillo, not to mention many more.
It's a relatively quieter week for economic news, but there's UK government borrowing and house prices, along with US GDP and consumer confidence, and a Bank of Japan rate decision for the super keen macro fans.
MONDAY 24 APRIL
It looks like a very quiet start to the week, which could allow more attention for the likes of CentralNic, the provider of domain names, hosting and monetisation software, which follows in-line annual results less than a month ago with a trading update.
In the week leading up to the results, broker Numis gave the company a new 'buy' rating, with a price target of 180p versus the latest price of around 124p.
Significant announcements on Monday
Trading updates: CentralNic Group PLC (AIM:CNIC)
Interims: Lok'n Store PLC
Finals: Frenkel Topping Group (AIM:FEN) PLC
AGMs: CentralNic Group PLC
US earnings: Coca-Cola Co, Activision Blizzard Inc (NASDAQ:ATVI), First Republic Bank (NYSE:FRC)
TUESDAY 25 APRIL
Before the trillion-dollar megacap tech groups make their appearance later, a selection of London's blue chips have a chance to impress, including Primark owner Associated British Foods PLC (LSE:ABF), which has been sashaying higher so far this year, continuing a rally since sinking to 10-year lows back in October.
But with the shares still down more than 20% from where they were before the first Covid lockdown in early 2020, with analysts saying a recent trading update and the outlook statement will be more important than the first-half numbers.
At Whitbread PLC (LSE:WTB), new boss, Dominic Paul, will face his first assessment from investors as the Premier Inns owner reports full-year results, with the main focus being whether he can control costs as part of a target to regain pre-pandemic profit levels this year.
Later, Google owner Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) is expected to post a mixed bag, while Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) is also up in the air, with bulls and bears both making convincing statements.
Significant announcements on Tuesday
Trading updates: IWG PLC (LSE:IWG), Jupiter Fund Management PLC (LSE:JUP), Travis Perkins (LSE:TPK) PLC, WAG Payment Solutions PLC (LSE:WPS),
Interims: AB Dynamics PLC (AIM:ABDP), Associated British Foods PLC, Focusrite PLC (AIM:TUNE)
Finals: Avacta Group PLC (AIM:AVCT), Card Factory (LSE:CARD) PLC, Corero Network Security PLC (AIM:CNS), Dillistone Group (AIM:DSG) PLC, Hvivo PLC, Jadestone Energy PLC (AIM:JSE), Keystone Law Group PLC (AIM:KEYS), Next 15 Group PLC (AIM:NFG), Northcoders Group PLC (AIM:CODE), Oxford Biomedica PLC, Whitbread PLC
AGMs: Aquis Exchange Ltd, Beazley PLC (LSE:BEZ), CLS Holdings Plc (LSE:CLI), Entain PLC (LSE:ENT), GlobalData PLC (AIM:DATA), NatWest Group PLC (LSE:NWG), SigmaRoc PLC (AIM:SRC), VH Global Sustainable Energy Opportunities PLC
Economic announcements: Public Sector Net Borrowing (UK), House Price Index (US), Consumer Confidence (US), New Homes Sales (US)
US earnings: Alphabet Inc, 3M Co (NYSE:MMM), General Electric (NYSE:GE) Company, General Motors Company (NYSE:GM), Illumina Inc (NASDAQ:ILMN), McDonald's Corp, Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT), PepsiCo (NASDAQ:PEP) Inc, Spotify Technology SA (NYSE:SPOT), Verizon Communications, Visa Inc (NYSE:V)
WEDNESDAY 26 APRIL
Standard Chartered PLC (LSE:STAN) will be the first of the FTSE 100 banks to report first-quarter results, having disappointed with earnings last time, but got a modest round of applause for better-than-expected dividends and buyback news.
Elsewhere in the financials sector, Man Group PLC (LSE:EMG) was given an upgrade ahead of its first-quarter update, even though performance fee expectations for the hedge fund group have fallen sharply following a difficult March.
GSK PLC (LSE:GSK, NYSE:GSK), its first-quarter result comes hot on the heels of the US$2bn acquisition of Bellus Healthcare and with the results also acting as a taster before its larger rival later in the week.
With a first Zantac JCCP case scheduled for July, analysts think this is masking the attractive growth outlook for the group.
Stateside, Facebook and Instagram owner Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:FB) faces investors after some big staff cuts and with big questions about its AI plans and what look like bad metaverse missteps.
Significant announcements on Wednesday 26
Trading updates: Fresnillo PLC (LSE:FRES), Glencore PLC (LSE:GLEN), GSK PLC, Reckitt Benckiser Group PLC (LSE:RKT, ETR:3RB), Smith & Nephew PLC (LSE:SN),
Interims: NCC Group PLC (LSE:NCC)
Finals: 1Spatial (AIM:SPA) PLC, Biome Technologies PLC (AIM:BIOM), Sanderson Design Group PLC (AIM:SDG), Warpaint London PLC (AIM:W7L)
AGMs: Alfa Financial Software Holdings Ltd, Allianz Technology Trust PLC (LSE:ATT), Anglo American PLC (LSE:AAL), Breedon Group Plc (AIM:BREE), Bunzl PLC (LSE:BNZL), Croda International PLC (LSE:CRDA), Drax Group (LSE:DRX) PLC, Elementis plc (LSE:ELM), Global Invacom Group (AIM:GINV) Ltd, Global Opportunities Trust PLC, Lancashire Holdings, Metro Bank PLC (LSE:MTRO), Mobius Investment Trust (LSE:MMIT) PLC, Nichols PLC (AIM:NICL), Octopus AIM VCT 2 PLC, One Media iP Group PLC (AIM:OMIP), Persimmon PLC (LSE:PSN), RIT Capital Partners (LSE:RCP) PLC, Standard Chartered PLC
Economic announcements: MBA Mortgage Applications (US), Durable Goods Orders (US), Crude Oil Inventories (US)
US earnings: Automatic Data Processing, The Boeing Company (NYSE:BA), CME Group (NASDAQ:CME), Thermo Fisher Scientific (NYSE:TMO), Meta Platforms Inc, QuantumScape, Roku Inc (NASDAQ:ROKU), ServiceNow Inc
THURSDAY 27 APRIL
It's the turn of London's most valuable company on Thursday, with analysts saying the main focus for the AstraZeneca PLC (LSE:AZN) quarterly statement being whether its main growth-driving drugs have improved after a soft finish to last year, along with news on upcoming drug trial updates.
Second off the line on the bank results season is Barclays PLC (LSE:BARC) where rising interests may create crosswinds for the group, benefitting the traditional banking arm and expected to lead to a mixed performance for investment banking.
Some similar market forces are likely to be apparent in the results from London Stock Exchange Group PLC (LSE:LSEG), where some analysts reckon it is on an increasingly good footing.
For J Sainsbury PLC (LSE:SBRY), meanwhile, the supermarket finds itself releasing full-year results just as the spotlight has become firmly fixed on how supermarkets are profiteering from inflation.
But are food brand owners and other producers getting away scot-free of criticism? Unilever has been hiking prices too, and analysts see this as a crucial tool for the company.
Across the pond, Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN) will be the biggest name reporting earnings on Thursday, after the closing bell in New York, with expectations at a low point.
The last year and a bit has not been that enjoyable a time for investors in the company, with the shares down around 45% in the 17 months to March, with profit margins the main focus in next week’s numbers, along with the cloud business, AWS, after cracks seen at the end of last year.
Significant announcements on Thursday 27
Trading updates: AstraZeneca PLC, Barclays PLC, Currys PLC (LSE:CURY), Howden Joinery Group (LSE:HWDN) PLC, Inchcape PLC (LSE:INCH), London Stock Exchange Group PLC, PPHE Hotel Group Ltd, St James's Place PLC, Taylor Wimpey PLC (LSE:TW.), Unilever PLC (LSE:ULVR), WPP PLC (LSE:WPP),
Finals: Novacyt Group, J Sainsbury PLC, Shield Therapeutics PLC (AIM:STX, OTCQX:SHIEF), Synairgen
AGMs: Admiral Group, AFC Energy PLC (AIM:AFC, OTC:AFGYF), AstraZeneca PLC, BP PLC (LSE:BP.), CLS Holdings PLC, CRH PLC (LSE:CRH), Dalata Hotel Group PLC (LSE:DAL), Develop North PLC, Dial Square Investments PLC (LSE:DSI), F&C Investment Trust PLC (LSE:FCIT), Flutter Entertainment, Helios Towers PLC (LSE:HTWS), Ibstock PLC (LSE:IBST), International Personal Finance (LSE:IPF) PLC, Kerry Group Ltd, London Stock Exchange Group PLC, Quixant PLC (LSE:QXT), Robert Walters PLC (LSE:RWA), Schroders PLC (LSE:SDR), Serco Group PLC (LSE:SRP), Smithson Investment Trust PLC, STV Group Plc (LSE:STVG), Synectics (AIM:SNX) PLC, Taylor Wimpey PLC, Tissue Regenix Group PLC (AIM:TRX), Weir Group PLC (LSE:WEIR)
Economic announcements: Continuing Claims (US), Initial Jobless Claims (US), Pending Homes Sales (US)
Ex-dividends to reduce FTSE 100 by: 6.69
US earnings: AbbVie Inc, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Caterpillar Inc, Eli Lilly and Co (NYSE:LLY), Mastercard Inc (NYSE:MA), Merck & Co, Amazon.com Inc, Amgen Inc, Gilead Sciences, Intel Corp, Mondelez (NASDAQ:MDLZ) International Inc, Pinterest Inc (NYSE:PINS), Snap Inc (NYSE:SNAP)
FRIDAY 28 APRIL
Payday for many, the last Friday of the month will bring a lighter results day, including from NatWest Group PLC, where one of the biggest hedge fund firms in the world recently took a record short position in the lender.
London-based Marshall Wace has taken a £155.6mln short, the largest disclosed short position against the bank since records began in 2012.
Along with its peers, the results will be monitored by an influential parliamentary committee for excess profits as banks are seen as being achingly slow to raise interest rates on their savings accounts, while lifting mortgage rates with a trigger finger, and also penalising loyal customers in comparison with newcomers.
Significant announcements on Friday 28
Trading updates: Computacenter PLC (LSE:CCC), Industrials REIT Ltd (LSE:MLI, JSE:MLI), Rotork PLC (LSE:ROR), Smurfit Kappa Group plc (LSE:SKG), NatWest Group PLC,
Finals: James Fisher & Sons PLC (LSE:FSJ), Morgan Advanced Materials plc (LSE:MGAM), Puretech Health PLC
AGMs: Audioboom Group PLC (AIM:BOOM), BBGI Global Infrastructure S.A., Bellevue Healthcare Trust PLC (LSE:BBH), Everest Global PLC, GetBusy PLC (AIM:GETB), Greencoat Renewables PLC (LSE:GRP), Greencoat UK Wind PLC (LSE:UKW), Hikma Pharmaceuticals, JPMorgan Claverhouse Investment Trust PLC, Kingspan Group PLC (LSE:KGP), Minoan Group PLC (AIM:MIN), Pearson PLC (LSE:PSON), Rotork PLC, Smurfit Kappa Group PLC, Symphony International Holdings Ltd, Woodside Energy Group Ltd (ASX:WDS, LSE:WDS, OTC:WOPEF)
Economic announcements: Employment Cost Index (US), Personal Consumption Expenditures (US), Personal Income (US), Personal Spending (US), Chicago PMI (US), U. of Michigan Confidence (Final) (US)
US earnings: Aon PLC, Chevron Corporation (NYSE:CVX), Exxon Mobil