So, will “Super Thursday” prove to be “Thunderous Thursday”?
The day is named after the Norse god of thunder, after all.
As the last time the Bank of England changed its interest rate veteran Chelsea defender John Terry was in short trousers (he changed into them just before the announcement was made) it is understandable the media is getting mildly excited by changes to the central bank’s monthly routine.
The bank is set to announce its decision on interest rate and asset purchase policy, release the minutes of the Monetary Policy Committee (the team that makes those decisions) and also publish its quarterly inflation report, all on the same day today.
In days gone by, those announcements would have been spread over two weeks, but governor Mark Carney wants the bank to fall in line with the world’s other leading central banks and hold a press conference to explain its thinking on interest rates.
It is all part of Carney’s commitment to more transparency on the decision-making process.
One of his earliest decisions upon taking up the role as BoE governor was to commit to providing “forward guidance” – there being little demand for “backward guidance”, presumably – in the name of transparency, but what former prime minister Harold Macmillan once described as “events, dear boy” quickly put the kybosh on that idea.
Let’s see how long the new idea lasts.
Insurers are in focus this morning with RSA (LON:RSA) and Aviva (LON:AV.) both reporting.
The former is in the sights of Zurich Insurance, and coincidentally the Swiss firm has also released results today, in which it pledged not to overpay for RSA.
In the list of largely pointless statements, this ranks high, but at least the company did not describe guidance as “forward guidance”.
Back to RSA, which has reinstated its dividend. History suggests that if it maintains its independence for long enough it will cut it again at some point, as this seems to be the way of insurance firms.
Talking of which, Aviva (LON:AV.), which cut its dividend in early 2013, beat forecasts with its interim profits, so it could justifiably argue that upsetting income investors in the short term was worth it in the long term.
Among the small caps, announcements from Sound Oil and ValiRx have caught the eye of private investors.
Sound Oil (LON:SOU) has signed a deal for the Nervesa gas field that represents its first engagement with integrated oil major Shell (LON:RDSB).
The agreement for the Casa Tonetto production concession, which hosts Nervesa, is with Shell Energy Italia.
Cancer drug developer ValiRx (LON:VAL) has signed a new collaborative research project with Professor Paul Taylor, the co-inventor of one of its two treatments currently going through clinical trials.