Banking results season is upon us, with three of the big four reporting this week.
Courting corporates Royal Dutch Shell and BG Group also weigh in with updates, as does sector peer BP on Tuesday.
It’s clearly a big week for FTSE 100 heavyweights, as GlaxoSmithKline and BT are also scheduled to update the market.
The week kicks off with advertising giant WPP issuing a trading statement on Monday. The company’s reports are always closely studied, as much for what they say about the global economy as for what they say about the company’s performance.
Lloyds gets the banking ball rolling on Wednesday with its third quarter update, and if the numbers are received well it will give a boost to the forthcoming £2bn or so share sale to the public, selling it what it already owns some might say, schedule for the spring.
“Further broad progress is expected, underwritten by ongoing exposure to the recovering UK economy and group cost reduction. Hopes that disappointment, following additional PPI provisions announced at its interim results, will not be repeated, persist, whilst the board’s previously stated intention to increase dividends over the medium term, will potentially be stressed again,” reckons Keith Bowman at Hargreaves Lansdown.
Barclays reports on Thursday in the wake of a slightly surprising announcement from executive chairman John McFarlane that big bonuses are bad for the culture of a bank.
The pronouncement is surprising because the bank is rumoured to be on the verge of appointing investment banker James Staley as its new group chief executive officer, and investment bankers are not famed for their willingness to give up their bonuses.
In the meantime, McFarlane has been focusing on paring back the bank’s operations to its core areas of expertise and market dominance.
Finally, on Friday, perhaps the most problematic of the problem children in the banking sector, RBS, will be looking to repeat its trick of three months ago when its quarterly update beat consensus forecasts on just about every key performance indicator.
For the third quarter Investec expects a more modest “beat”, with adjusted operating profit of £1.1bn, 8% ahead of the company-compiled consensus of £1.0bn.
The broker sees the CET1 capital ratio – a measure of balance sheet strength – hardening by one fifth of a percentage point to 12.5% in the third quarter, and then to 15.9% in the fourth quarter.
Significant announcements expected
Monday
Final: Aviva="" group="" href="-##!##-/LON:AV./Aviva/" LON:AV.="" rel="2998">Aviva (LON:AV.
Trading statement: WPP group (LON:WPP)
US companies: AvalonBay Communities; Broadcom; Edwards Lifesciences; Hartford Financial Services; Laboratory of America Holdings; Plum Creek Timber Co; Roper Technologies; Torchmark; Xerox; XL Group
Economic: US – New home sales
Tuesday
Final: Utilitywise (LON:UTW)
Interim: Bloomsbury Publishing (LON:BMY), BP (LON:BP.), JZ Capital Partners Limited (LON:JZCX), Torchmark Corporation (LON:TMK)
Trading statement: International Personal Finance (LON:IPF), Shoe Zone (LON:SHOE), St James's Place (LON:STJ)
US companies: Aflac; Airgas; Akamai Technologies; AMETEK; Anadarko Petroleum; Apple;Assurant; Baxter International; Bristol-Myers Squibb Co; CBRE Group; CH Robinson Worldwide; Cincinnati Financial; Coach; Comcast; CONSOL Energy; Corning; Cummins; Edison International; EI du Pont de Nemours & Co; Equity Residential; Express Scripts Holding Co; Fiserv; Ford Motor Co; Gilead Sciences; HCA Holdings; IngersollRand; Macerich; Marsh & McLennan Cos; Masco; Merck & Co; Owens-Illinois; PACCAR; Pfizer; Reynolds American; Sealed Air; Simon Property Group; Textron; Total System Services; United Parcel Service; Universal Health Services; Verisk Analytics; Waste Management; Waters; Wyndham Worldwide
Economic: UK – Preliminary gross domestic product. EU – M3 money supply. US – CB consumer confidence; Core durable goods orders; Durable goods orders.
Wednesday
Final: Epistem Holdings (LON:EHP), Redefine International (LON:RDI)
Interim: Braemar Shipping Services (LON:BMS), C&C Group (LON:CCR), Gear4music Holdings (LON:G4M), GlaxoSmithKline (LON:GSK), JZ Capital Partners Ltd (LON:JZCP)
Trading statement: Antofagasta (LON:ANTO), British American Tobacco (LON:BATS), Lloyds Banking Group (LON:LLOY), Next (LON:NXT), Petra Diamonds (LON:PDL), Standard Life (LON:SL.), Telecity (LON:TCY)
US companies: Amgen; Anthem; Automatic Data Processing; AutoNation; Avery Dennison; Boston Scientific;
DENTSPLY International; Equinix; F5 Networks; FLIR Systems; Garmin Ltd; General Dynamics; Hershey; Hess; International Paper Co; Level 3 Communications; Lincoln National; Marriott International/MD; Mondelez International; Murphy Oil; National Oilwell Varco; Newmont Mining; NextEra Energy; Norfolk Southern;
Northrop Grumman; Occidental Petroleum; O'Reilly Automotive; PayPal Holdings; PG&E;Public Storage; Range Resources; Realtyome; Southern; Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide; TE Connectivity Ltd;Tesoro; Unum Group; Valero Energy; Varian Medical Systems; Vertex Pharmaceuticals; Walgreens Boots Alliance; Western Digital; Williams
Economic: US – Crude oil inventories; Federal funds rate; FOMC statement; Goods trade balance.
Thursday
Final: Matchtech Group (LON:MTEC)
Interim: BT Group (LON:BT.A), COLT Telecom Group SA (LON:COLT),Megafon (LON:PJSC) (LON:MFON), Millennium & Copthorne Hotels (LON:MLC), Royal Dutch Shell (LON:RDSA)
Trading statement: Aviva (LON:AV.), Barclays (LON:BARC), COLT Telecom Group SA (LON:COLT), Henderson Group (LON:HGG), Kaz Minerals (LON:KAZ), Laird (LON:LRD), National Express Group (LON:NEX), Playtech (LON:PTEC), Smith & Nephew (LON:SN.)
The following widely-held stocks are trading ex-dividend: Barratt Developments, Booker Group, Dechra Pharmaceuticals, Go-Ahead, ITV, Lookers, Moss Bros, Mulberry Group, M&C Saatchi, Unilever
US companies: Aetna; Air Products & Chemicals; Alexion Pharmaceuticals; Allegion; Altria Group; American Tower; AmerisourceBergen; Ball; Baxalta; BorgWarner; Boston Properties; CME Group/IL; CMS Energy; CocaCola Enterprises; ConocoPhillips; Delphi Automotive; Eastman Chemical Co; Electronic Arts; Ensco; Essex Property Trust; Expedia; First Solar; Flowserve; Fluor; Genworth Financial; Goodyear Tire & Rubber; Hanesbrands; Harman International Industries; Host Hotels & Resorts; Invesco Ltd; Johnson Controls; Leggett & Platt; Marathon Petroleum; MasterCard; McKesson; Pitney Bowes; PPL; Praxair; Qorvo; Republic Services; SCANA; Sherwin-Williams; Starbucks; Time Warner Cable; Western Union; Xcel Energy; Xylem/NY; Zimmer Biomet Holdings
Economic: UK – Net lending to individuals. US – Advance gross domestic product; Pending home sales; Unemployment claims
Friday
Interim: BG Group (LON:BG.), International Consolidated Airlines Group (LON:IAG), Marlowe Holdings Limited (LON:MRL), Royal Bank of Scotland Group (LON:RBS),
Trading statement: Berendsen (LON:BRSN), Elementis (LON:ELM), Pets at Home Group (LON:PETS)
US companies: AbbVie; Aon; Chevron; Colgate-Palmolive Co; CVS Health; Eaton; Exelon; Exxon Mobil; Iron Mountain; Legg Mason; Moody's; Mylan NV; Newell Rubbermaid; Phillips 66; Pinnacle West Capital; Public Service Enterprise Group; Rockwell Collins; Seagate Technology; Welltower; Weyerhaeuser
Economic: EU – Core consumer prices index flash estimate; Unemployment. US – Chicago purchasing managers' index; Employment cost index; Personal spending; UoM consumer sentiment